LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



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Chap. Copyright No.. 

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



MAY 12 1900 



GLACIERES 



OR 



FREEZING CAVERNS 




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A. 



GLACIERES 



OR 



FREEZING CAVERNS 



BY 



/ 



EDWIN SWIFT BALCH 

A. B. (Harvard) ; F. R. G. S. 

Member of the Franklin Institute 

Of the Appalachian Mountain Club 

Of the American Philosophical Society 

Author of "Mountain Exploration," &c. 



Philadelphia 

ALLEN, LANE & SCOTT 

1900 



XWO COPIES «ECE1V»I>, 

L itrary of Congrei% 
Office c f tbi 

M»V 1 2 1900 

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..61640 

Copyright, 1900, by 
EDWIN SWIFT BALCH. 



Press of 

ALLEN, LANE & SCOTT, 

Philadelphia, Pa. 



THIS BOOK IS 
AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED TO 

MY MOTHER, 

WHOSE DEEP INTEREST IN 

MY WORK HAS 

HELPED ME GREATLY. 



PRELIMINARY NOTE. 



Many kind friends have given me information about 
glacieres or assistance in my work. I am especially 
indebted to Mr. Robert Butler, of San Jose, Cal. ; Mr. 
F. H. Gushing, of Washington, D. C. ; Professor 
Charles E. Fay, of Tufts College, Mass. ; Professor 
Eberhard Fugger, of Salzburg, Austria ; Mr. Alois F. 
Kovarik, of Decorah, Iowa ; Monsieur E. A. Martel, of 
Paris, France ; Mr. John Ritchie, Jr., of Boston, Mass. ; 
Professor I. C. Russell, of Ann Arbor, Mich. ; Miss H. 
Varena, of Wiesbaden, Germany ; and Miss Mary Coxe, 
Mr. G. L. Farnum, Mr. J. E. Farnum, Mr. F. L. Gar- 
rison, Mr. W. C. Hall, Mr. E. I. H. Howell, Mrs. Horace 
Jayne, Mr. W. E. Meehan, Mr. C. J. Nicholson, Mr. G. B. 
Phillips, Mr. Bunford Samuel, Mr. W. W. Wagner, and 
Dr. W. H. Wahl, of Philadelphia. I wish to acknowledge 
also the help I have derived from the Bibliotheque Na- 
tionale and the library of the British Museum. 

E. S. B. 

Philadelphia, February the loth, 1900. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

Part I. Experiences in Glacieres i 

Part II. The Causes of Subterranean Ice 109 

Part III. List of Glacieres 165 

Part IV. Some Opinions about Glacieres 269 

Part V. List of Authors 313 

Index 329 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Ice Slope and Basin, Kolowratshohle Frontispiece 

Glaciere de Chaux-les-Passavant 8 

Ice Stalagmites, Chaux-les-Passavant lo 

Vertical Section of Chaux-les-Passavant ii 

Ice Stalagmites, Chaux-les-Passavant 12 

Vertical Section of D6bsina 15 

The Lower Rositten Alp and the Untersberg 16 

The Entrance of the Kolowratshohle 18 

Vertical Section of the Kolowratshohle 19 

Top of Ice Slope, Kolowratshohle 20 

At the Entrance of the Schafloch 22 

Hollow Cones and Fissure Columns, Schafloch 24 

On the Ice Slope, Schafloch 2d 

In the rear of the Schafloch 28 

Vertical Section of Demenyfalva 29 

The Frauenmauer and the Gsoll Alp 38 

In the Frauenmauerhohle 40 

Vertical Section of the Frauenmauerhohle 42 

Ice Stalactite, Frauenmauerhohle 42 

Vertical Section of the Suchenreuther Eisloch 57 

La Glaciere de Saint-Georges 62 

Vertical Section of the Glaciere de Saint-Georges 64 

Vertical Section of Grand Cave de Montarquis 72 

The Bluff at Decorah ; 86 

Entrance of the Cave of Decorah 88 

Locus Glacialis, Cave of Decorah 90 

Gorge at Ellenville 92 

Vertical Section of Pit near Summit 97 

Vertical Section of Freezing Cave near Williamstown .... 103 

Vertical Section of a Windhole 125. 

Freezing Cavern at Brainard i8a 



PART I. 



EXPERIENCES IN GLAClfiRES. 



EXPERIENCES IN GLACIERES. 



SUBTERRANEAN ICE IN KING'S RAVINE. 

Subterranean ice was brought to my notice by a 
mere accident, late in the month of September, 1877, 
while on a descent of King's Ravine, on Mount Adams, 
in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. We had 
just descended the rock wall of the mountain and had 
reached the head of the gorge, when my companion, 
Mr. Charles E. Lowe, the well-known Appalachian guide 
of Randolph, suddenly said to me, "Would you like a 
piece of ice ? I can get you some presently." I an- 
swered, ** Certainly," wondering where he would find 
any. When we got among the big boulders, which form 
so rough a path for the traveler at the bottom of the 
ravine, Mr. Lowe climbed down under one of the big- 
gest, and presently reappeared with a good sized lump of 
ice. I was much impressed at finding ice at the end 
of the summer in this gorge, when for months past no 
ice or snow had been visible on the surrounding moun- 
tains. I noticed also the peculiar, flaky formation of the 
ice, and saw at once that it was something new to me, 



2 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

and in fact It was a piece of what I have since learned 
to know as " prismatic ice." 

GLACIERE NEAR BRISONS. 

In the summer of the year 1880, I traveled through 
the Alps, with a friend from Philadelphia. On the 17th 
of September, we drove from Geneva to Bonneville. 
Thence we started on foot without a guide, and as a 
result got lost in the woods, from which we only ex- 
tricated ourselves at nightfall. After retracing our steps 
to Bonneville, we were glad to find a man to show 
us the way we should have taken, and finally reached 
the little village of Brisons in France, where we slept. 
The next day we took a guide and made our way across 
the mountains to Annecy, at one spot going out of our 
direct route to see a place spoken of by the natives as 
a glaciere. It was a little pit, and at the base of one 
side thereof was the mouth of a small cave into which 
we could not see any distance. At the bottom of the 
pit lay a mass of dirty snow and ice to which we did 
not descend, as the sides of the pit were sheer and 
smooth, and there was no ladder. This pit seemed to 
be more of the nature of a gully filled with winter 
snow, than a true rock cave containing ice. 

THE GLACIERE DE L'HAUT-D'AVIERNOZ. 

Three days after this, on Tuesday, the 21st of Sep- 
tember, 1880, we visited the two largest glacieres on the 



EXPERIENCES IN GLACIERES. 3 

Mont Parmelan, near Annecy, France. At Annecy we 
inquired at the hotel for a man who knew the Mont 
Parmelan; and, after finding one, we made our way to 
Les Villaz, where we spent the night in an auberge. 
Our companion was an odd personage. He was small, 
about fifty years of age, and looked meek, crushed and 
hungry. He wore a long black frock coat and black 
trousers, thin boots and a linen shirt, certainly not the 
ideal outfit for a cave explorer. Under his care we 
started early in the morning and toiled up a mountain 
path some eight hundred or a thousand meters,^ through 
woods and pastures, to the higher plateau of Mont Par- 
melan, in which was situated the first glaciere. This was 
in a great pit, at the bottom of which, on one side, was 
a big cave. On the side of the pit opposite to the 
opening, there was a steep rock slope, forty or fifty 
meters long, whose lower portion was covered with snow. 
Down this slope we descended with but little difftculty, 
reaching at the bottom an almost level ice floor which 
spread over the entire cave and was formed throughout 
of thick, solid ice. A second and much smaller pit in the 
roof of the cave opened directly over the ice floor ; and 
under this pit rose a small cone of ice, some two meters 
high, the only one in this glaciere. 

The glaciere itself was approximately round in shape, 
and some twenty meters in diameter. At one place the 
rock wall was broken and we could look into a much 

^ The metric system is used throughout this book, except in a few- 
quotations. Thermometric observations are given in degrees Centigrade. 



4 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

smaller inner cave or chamber. Into this we could not 
penetrate on account of a long, narrow crack or hole 
which yawned in the ice floor for a distance of some 
five or six meters and continued through the opening 
into the second chamber. We tried to cut our way 
along the side of the hole, but had to give it up, 
finding the ice too hard and our time too short. The 
crack or hole, whose sides were solid ice, proved con- 
clusively that the ice in this glaciere was many meters 
in thickness, for we could look a long way down into 
the hole, certainly for ten or twelve meters, until the 
ice sides disappeared in darkness, without any visible 
bottom. The hole cannot be spoken of as a crevasse, 
for, besides not looking like a crevasse, it was cer- 
tainly formed by other causes than those which form 
the crevasses in glaciers, since there is, as a rule, no 
perceptible movement in subterranean ice. Doubtless, 
the hole was due to the drainage of the cave, which 
undoubtedly passed off through the hole. There may 
be, nevertheless, some little motion in the ice of this 
glaciere, for it is evident that it is fed principally directly 
by the winter snows ; which, whether as frozen or melted 
snow, descend gradually, by the force of gravitation, from 
the slope of the pit into the glaciere. 

As for any possibility of this great mass of ice melt- 
ing away and forming again in any one year, it passes 
belief; there must be at least the cubic contents of a 
dozen ordinary houses in the cave, and such a mass 
could hardly be destroyed or formed again in any such 



EXPERIENCES IN GLACIERES. 5 

short Space of time as a fall or spring. This is, there- 
fore, probably a permanent or perennial glaciere. 

THE GLACIERE DE CHAPUIS. 

Starting out from the Glaciere de I'Haut-d'Aviernoz 
we walked across the plateau of the Mont Parmelan, 
en route for the second glaciere. This plateau is a curious 
rock formation, consisting of what the natives call lapiaz, 
which might be translated ** stone-heaps." The plateau 
is full of great projecting rocks ; and myriads of cracks 
and crevices everywhere rend the surface, and over 
these crevices one sometimes has to jump. Still, I do 
not remember any particular difficulty. It was certainly 
not nearly as bad walking as the taluses of loose rocks 
one meets at the base of many mountains. 

Our guide led us for about an hour across the plateau 
in a southerly direction, and then, looking over the side of 
the Parmelan, with a sweep of the arm covering south, 
west and north, he told us that the glaciere lay between 
those points, but he did not know exactly where. This 
seemed a rather hopeless prospect, so, as we had no 
clue to the whereabouts of our prospective hole, we 
descended to a couple of chalets we saw some two 
hundred meters below, but which at least were in the 
direction of Annecy. We followed a goat-herd's path 
which led to the chalets from the plateau, one of those 
dangerous grass tracks, where nothing would be easier 
than to make a slip, and where a bad slip might have 
unpleasant results. This is, however, just the kind of 



6 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

place where every one is particularly careful not to slip. 
We were careful and so reached the chalets all right, 
and there we found a strong, intelligent boy, who at once 
pointed out the place where the glaciere was, about 
half way up the slope we had just come down. So we 
took him with us, leaving our guide at the chalets to 
await our return. 

The entrance to the glaciere was in a wall of rock, 
set at an angle of some thirty-five degrees ; at the bot- 
tom of this there was some grass. An easy chimney some 
fifteen meters high led up to the glaciere. Up this chim- 
ney we climbed. At the top we entered a little cave 
about two meters deep, by a sort of portal about two 
meters wide. The cave made an elbow to the right, and 
passing this we found that it turned to the left and 
pointed directly into the mountain. The rock went down 
vertically in front of us, but the boy said we could get 
down, so having first lowered a candle by a string to 
see the depth, which turned out to be a perpendicular 
drop of some four or five meters, with the help of the 
rope we all climbed down. We were already almost 
entirely away from the daylight and a few steps took us 
into complete darkness, except for the light we had from 
the candle each of us held in his hand. 

The fissure led straight into the mountain. It was a 
couple of meters wide at places, and there we moved 
along the bottom. In one place it narrowed below to a 
wedge, and there we progressed either by climbing along 
one side or by placing one foot on one side and the 



EXPERIENCES IN GLACIERES. 7 

Other foot on the other. The fissure led downwards as 
well as inwards. It would have been nothing in daylight 
to go through it ; but in the semi-darkness it was not 
easy. 

After a descent of some twenty-five meters or there- 
abouts, we arrived at the glaciere, and I have certainly 
never seen a weirder place. There was a great arched 
rock dome, perhaps six meters in height, and some twelve 
in diameter ; the floor was a sheet of smooth, slippery ice, 
at one end curling over, gently at first, afterwards more 
steeply, to a lower depth ; and on the sides were seven 
or eight ice columns streaming from cracks in the rocks 
to the floor. Each of these columns was some three or 
four meters high, and, small at the top and in the mid- 
dle, spread out at the base into the shape of fans. In 
the dim candle light and the cold damp atmosphere, the 
columns loomed up like so many ghosts, and the land- 
scape impression was strange and solemn. The air here 
seemed perfectly still. 

There was another curiosity. The fissure we had 
come down, at this point some three meters wide, was 
filled, just beyond the glaciere, with pure, transparent 
water, which formed a little lake : this was perhaps 
one meter deep, and extended across the fissure, barring 
further progress. It certainly seems strange that in the 
same cavern, under nearly the same conditions of temper- 
ature, there should be one place covered with a flooring of 
ice and another filled with water. The explanation, how- 
ever, is perhaps not far to seek. Over the lake there 



8 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

was a distinct draught of air. The draught probably 
melts the ice in summer, if indeed it does not prevent 
any from forming in winter. There are, so far, no winter 
observations reported of this cave, yet it would seem to 
be one which would well repay the trouble. 

THE GLACIERE DE CHAUX-LES-PASSAVANT. 

On the 17th of August, 1894, my brother and I arrived 
at Besangon, the Vesontio of the Romans, bent on see- 
ing the Glaciere de Chaux-les-Passavant or de la Grace- 
Dieu, which is not far distant from the town. The 
hotel we stopped at was pretty bad ; the beds were sur- 
mounted with those old-fashioned curtains which were of 
use before the invention of glass windows, but which now 
only serve to exclude air and ventilation. However, I 
learnt something of the manners and customs of the coun- 
try, for on getting down at six o'clock the next morn- 
ing for breakfast, the first question the waiter asked 
was: Quel vin monsieur prendra-t-ilf At seven o'clock 
we sallied forth in a little open one-horse victoria, with a 
dull gray sky overhead. Besangon is well down in a 
valley, so the first five miles of the road were a slow, 
gradual rise to the surrounding levels. The scenery 
as we drove along reminded us of Turner's pictures : 
distant vistas of hills and valleys with factories blow- 
ing off their smoke and with tumble-down old houses 
ensconced in picturesque nooks, just those long-distance 
effects that Turner loved to paint and which, for some 
reason, the artists of the present generation have generally 




GLACIERE DE CHAUX-LES-PASSAVANT. 

From a Photograph by E. Mauvillier. 



EXPERIENCES IN GLACIERES. 9 

neglected and usually speak of as unpaintable or unpictur- 
esque. There was a row of trees, the whole way, on each 
side of the road, a bit of practical forestry, the wisdom of 
which it would be well for Americans to recognize. 
After our poor horse had pulled us up the long hills, we 
had an almost level road running in a straight line as far 
as the eye could see. We saw at least a hundred little 
hawks, who live on field mice and other rodents, and 
whose preservation is another evidence of French wisdom. 
The last four miles of the drive was up a ravine in the 
woods, near the beginning of which we passed the Trap- 
pist convent of la Grace-Dieu. 

Opposite the entrance of the glaciere, there is a little 
restaurant where the peasants come to dance and picnic, 
and where the few travellers who get to these parts, can 
obtain a tolerable dejeuner. They keep a fair vin du pays 
there, and we had some trouble on the way home in con- 
sequence. Our driver, a talkative specimen of the genus 
and an old soldier of Bourbaki's, told us, on the way out, 
many things about Besangon during the Franco-German 
war and of the retreat of the French army into Switz- 
erland ; but on the way home, he showed that he evi- 
dently was not a member of the blue ribbon army. 
He first seemed desirous of not taking us back to Besan- 
gon, preferring to go in the other direction towards Bale ; 
and afterwards he evinced a violent inclination to go to 
sleep. We thought we should have to request him to 
change seats with us, and drive back ourselves, but we 
obviated the difficulty by plying him with questions as 



lO GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

soon as he began to nod on his box. Eventually, we 
reached Besangon all right, only once bumping a passing 
cart, and only once nearly capsizing into a ditch. If 
Americans can learn some points from Europeans about 
forestry, I think the latter might get some equally valu- 
able information from us concerning the use of water, 
externally and internally. 

The good lady at the restaurant acts the part of the 
old-fashioned cave dragon, and we had to appease her by 
handing over four sous as a preliminary to exploration. 
She also had a sign up, saying that no one is allowed to 
break off or take away any ice, which must sadly interfere 
with the tourists' privilege of bringing away specimens. 

The entrance of the glaciere was surrounded by 
woods, which formed a natural rampart to anything like 
wind. As we stood facing the glaciere a great pit opened 
before us, with a slope about one hundred and thirty-five 
meters long leading to the bottom. This slope is at first 
gentle in its gradient, but lower down it steepens to an 
angle of some thirty degrees so that we were glad to 
resort to the trail which descends in regular Alpine zig- 
zags. In one place, on the right hand, there were the 
remains of a stone wall with a door, and local tradition 
relates that in former times there was a sort of fortified 
habitation there, which was used in war times as a place 
of retreat. The lower part of the slope is covered by a 
protecting roof of rock which, thin at the rim where it is 
edged with forest, gradually slopes downward overhead 
so that at the mouth of the glaciere we looked back and 




w 



EXPERIENCES IN GLACIERES. 



II 



Up what might be described as an immense tunnel. The 
lower part of the slope was a mixture of broken rocks, 
mud and ice : the last, however, seemed to be all on 
the surface, although it was impossible to determine 
whether it went to any depth. 

At the base of the tunnel we found ourselves on the 
threshold of an immense, almost circular cave, with a 
diameter of some fifty meters, rising overhead into a reg- 
ular vault or dome about twenty-seven meters in height. 
The entrance to the cave is so large that plenty of day- 




Fig. I. * Vertical Section of Chaux-les-Passavant. 



light is admitted, and the whole cave easily examined. 
The rocks are of a yellowish brown hue, and I could 
not help thinking of Nibelheim in Richard Wagner's 
Rheingold. 

The bottom of the cave was entirely covered with a 
flooring of ice. How thick this flooring was there was 
no means of judging, as there were no holes, but it must 

2 The figures in this book are rough sketches, without pretense 
at accuracy of measurement, and are only explanatory of the text. 



12 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

have been at least two or three meters thick In places. 
At the back of the cavern, directly facing the entrance, 
one mao^nificent frozen water fall streamed from a fis- 
sure. It was perhaps five meters high, and began 
to take the fan shape from its origin. The base was 
about four meters wide, and did not rest on the ice 
floor, but on a sloping rock extending out from the 
side of the cave. 

Perhaps the most remarkable feature of all, were six 
or seven great ice stalagmites, shaped like cones or rough 
pyramids, which rose on the floor of the cave. One of 
these was at least five meters in diameter and six in 
height, and seemed perfectly solid. In the case of two of 
the others, however, the cones were broken on one side, 
revealing in each the stem and branches of a young pine 
tree. These evidently had been planted in the ice and 
round them the columns had grown. Whether all the 
ice cones were thus artificial in their origin I could not 
determine, but it seemed probable that they were the 
result of years of undisturbed accretion and growth. In 
both the cones where the break on the side gave a 
view Into the Interior, the dark blue-green color of deep 
glacier crevasses was present. 

A pool of water, perhaps thirty centimeters In depth 
and three or four meters In diameter, lay at one place 
on the Ice floor. The whole cave was damp and the 
ice In places decidedly slushy, In fact all the signs showed 
that It was thawing. In the case of this glaciere as well 
as in those of the Mont Parmelan, It seemed clear that 



EXPERIENCES IN GLACIERES. 1 3 

it must be in the winter months that the formation of 
ice takes place. 

DOBSINA JEGBARLANG. 

The cavern of Dobsina, in the Carpathian Mountains, 
is easily reached either from Poprad to the north, or 
from Dobsina to the south. The hotel at Poprad is bet- 
ter, however, than the inn at Dobsina, where my brother 
and I spent two nights. It was decidedly primitive. The 
food was not so bad, but the pigs ran round in the court- 
yard, and one morning a gypsy band woke us at half-past 
three o'clock by playing in front of our windows, in dread- 
ful wailing tones, which were most irritating at that hour. 
At the proper time, however, Hungarian gypsy music, — 
despite the fact that none of the players ever seem to 
look at the leader, and that each man appears to play the 
tune he likes the best, — is strangely fascinating. 

Dobsina itself lies in a hollow, surrounded with well- 
wooded hills, the general appearance much resembling 
some of the valleys of the White Mountains of New 
Hampshire. My brother and I started from Dobsina 
on the morning of the 27th of July, 1895, at half-past 
seven o'clock, in a little open carriage with excellent 
horses and a Hungarian driver in national costume. He 
was a nice fellow, but he did not understand a word of 
German. The road reminded us of some of our own 
mountain roads, as it was rough, full of holes and partly 
washed away by the rains. We first ascended to the 
crest of the surrounding hills and then descended to the 



14 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

Stracena Thai, a wild limestone valley covered with fine 
forest. Two hours and a half driving landed us at the 
hotel- restaurant near the cave, at which I should certainly 
stop on another visit. It was half an hour's stroll thence, 
through beautiful woods, to the cavern's entrance. North- 
wards in the distance the Tatra Range was visible, a set 
of sharp bare rock peaks, at whose base, ensconced 
in pine forests, is situated the famous Hungarian sum- 
mer resort of Tatra Fiired, which much resembles Bar 
Harbor. 

The entrance to the cavern is enclosed by a fence with 
a gate, and here the Dobsina people have a high tariff 
and take toll from tourists. At the gate, we waited for 
half an hour, until a sufficient number of persons had 
arrived to form a party. This mode of visiting the cave 
rather detracts from the pleasure, even though it does 
away with all difficulty and makes the beauties of Dobsina 
accessible to everyone. It was also necessary to wait long 
enough to cool off thoroughly before entering, on account 
of the icy air of the cavern, where heavy winter clothes 
are indispensable. 

The entrance to Dobsina faces nearly due north. It 
is small, perhaps two meters wide and three meters high, 
and is perfectly sheltered from any wind. The sudden 
drop in temperature at the entrance was startling ; in fact 
it was the most extreme change I have noticed in any cave. 
Within the length of an ordinary room, say in a distance 
of five meters, we passed from an extremely hot summer 
morning to the chill of a mid-winter afternoon. A slight 



EXPERIENCES IN GLACIERES. 



15 



air current, perhaps,- issued from the entrance, as we 
observed a faint mist there. At the rock portal there 
was ice on the rocks overhead, and underfoot was the 
beginning of the huge mass of ice which almost fills the 
cavern. A descent down eighteen wooden steps landed 
us at the beginning of a great ice floor, in what is called 
the Grosser Saal. It is a magnificent cave. The floor is 
a sheet or rather a mass of solid ice, the surface of which 
is level enough in one place to permit of skating ; in other 




Fig. 2. Vertical Section of Dobsina. 



spots it is sloping and covered with small ice hillocks. 
The ice is solid throughout, without any holes or cracks. 
Several fissure columns stream to the floor from cracks in 
the sides. Joining the roof to the floor are numerous big 
ice stalactites, which form frozen pillars and columns. 
These are from eight to eleven meters in height, and some 
two to three meters in average breadth and width. Nearly 
translucent, they are covered with all sorts of icy orna- 
ments hanging about them in tufts and fringes ; they are 



1 6 GLACIlfcRES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

beautiful in their shapes, as well as in their white and 
blue colors. One of these columns is called the Brunnen, 
because until about ten years ago, a small stream dribbled 
continuously from the roof and cut a channel across the 
ice floor ; but now the stream has solidified into the pillar, 
and the channel is filled up, although it can still be traced 
in the ice. 

The cavern is lighted by electricity, which has the 
merit, even if it brings in an element of artificial- 
ity, of clearly revealing one of the chief glories ol 
Dobsina. This is the rime or hoar frost, which in the 
shape of ice or snow crystals, covers the entire limestone 
roof, and, reflecting the electric light, shines like frosted 
silver. Some of these frost crystals seem to be precipi- 
tated to the floor, and in one place I found a small 
sheet of them, perhaps two meters in width each way, 
which looked and felt like genuine snow. The general 
color effect of all this upper cave is white, although there 
is some blue in the ice, and gray and brown in the rocks 
and shadows. It would not be much of a misnomer 
to call Dobsina "the great white cave." 

The ice extended to the sides of the cave except in 
two places. Here there were holes in the ice, bridged by 
low rock arches. We passed through one of these and 
descended by a wooden staircase some eighty steps, after- 
wards returning up through the other arch by another 
staircase. At the bottom we stood in a magnificent 
gallery named the Korridor, formed by a solid wall of ice 
on one side and by a wall of limestone rock on the other. 




THE LOWER ROSITTEN ALP AND THE UNTERSBERG. 



EXPERIENCES IN GLACIERES. 1 7 

The ice wall is the lower portion of the ice floor ; the rock 
wall is the continuation of the roof. For the entire dis- 
tance the ice wall rises almost perpendicularly some 
fifteen meters in height, while the rock wall arches over- 
head. 

The bottom of the Korridor was filled with blocks of 
fallen limestone, through which any water drains off, and 
on which there was a wooden walk, so that we circled 
round the ice with the greatest ease. At one place on the 
limestone wall hung a cluster of big icicles, which, from 
their shape really deserved the name they bear, of the 
Orgel. At another place a hole, some six or seven meters 
deep, was hewn, in the form of a small chamber, directly 
into the ice mass. This is the Kapelle, where we per- 
formed our devotions by leaving our visiting cards on the 
floor. Near the middle of the Korridor the ice mass 
bulges out and extends to the limestone wall, breaking the 
whole Korridor into two parts, the western portion about 
eighty meters, and the eastern about one hundred and 
twenty meters long. This necessitated cutting a tunnel 
about eight meters long in the ice to get through. The 
color of the Korridor is a darkish gray and is much more 
sombre than that of the Grosser Saal, A remarkable 
feature of the ice wall is the fact that distinct bands of 
stratification are visible in the ice in many places. Why 
the Korridor is not filled up with ice and why the ice 
is perpendicular for such a distance are questions I am 
unable to answer satisfactorily; but it is probable that 
the temperature of the rock walls is sufliciently high to 



1 8 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

prevent ice from forming in winter or to melt it in 
summer if it does form in winter. 

The air in Dobsina seemed still, and scarcely felt damp. 
In one or two places in the Grosser Saal there was a 
slight sloppiness, showing incipient signs of thaw. In 
the Korridor it was freezing hard. 

THE KOLOWRATSHOHLE. 

The Kolowratshohle is situated on the north slope of 
the Untersberg, near Salzburg, at an altitude of 1391 
meters. My brother and I visited it on the 2d of August, 
1895. We had one of the patented guides of the district, 
Jacob Gruber by name, in regular Tyrolese dress, with 
gray jacke and black chamois knee breeches. We left 
Salzburg in the early morning in an einspdnner and drove 
to the foot of the Untersberg in about an hour, whence, 
by a rough path passing by the Rositten Alp, we ascended 
to the cave in about three hours. The last hundred and 
sixteen meters of the path were cut across some mod- 
erately steep rock slabs and a perfectly unnecessary iron 
hand-railing affixed. 

The entrance faces northeast. Here there must have 
been a slight draught of cold air moving outwards, the 
effect of which was perceptible to the eye, as at the point 
where the cold inside air met the quiet warm outside air. 
a faint mist was visible. From the entrance, a sharp slope, 
set at an angle of about forty degrees, led to the lowest 
point of the cave. The upper half of this slope was still 
covered with the winter snow which had blown or had 



EXPERIENCES IN GLACIERES. 



19 



slid in. We descended on the right hand edge of the 
snow by means of some steps cut in the rock by the 
Deutsche7i'0esterreichischen Alpen Club. These steps 
were covered with a sticky, red mud, which left almost 
ineradicable stains on our clothing, and as there was also 
ice in places, they were decidedly slippery. 

At the bottom of the slope we were at the lowest 
point of the cave, to which all the water flowed, and 




Fig. 3. Vertical Section of the Kolowratshohle. 



where it drained off into a crack with a loud gurgling 
noise. Back of us was the daylight streaming through 
the entrance ; opposite to us was first an ice floor, 
then a great ice slope, which came down from the further 
end of the cave. The ice was transparent and of a pale 
ochre-greenish hue, and filled the entire width of the cave. 
There is a streak of iron, probably, through the lime- 
stone, which in places tints the rocks a dull red. The 
color impression is a dull green-red, and, on account 



20 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

of the size of the entrance, the Hght effect is only semi- 
subterranean. 

The ice floor was covered with a layer of slabs of 
ice, eight or ten centimeters thick, which, earlier in the 
year, had evidently had water under them. The ice 
wall or ice slope consisted of two big waves, one above 
the other, the lower set at an angle of about ten 
degrees, the upper set at an angle of about twenty-five 
degrees. To get up the upper wave required about 
twelve steps cut with the axe. Behind the upper wave, 
five or six fissure columns streamed out to the begin- 
ning of the ice. One ice stalactite, at least two or 
three meters long, overhung the ice floor, and Gruber 
said about this : '* Well, I wonder it has not fallen yet : 
they seldom last as late in the year," a confirmation of 
what was clearly evident, namely, that the whole cave 
was in a state of thaw. 

In two places there was a strong, continuous drip 
from the roof to the ice floor, which formed, in each 
case, what I can only call an ice basin. These basins 
were nearly circular; one was about four meters, the 
other about two, in diameter. Around about two- 
thirds of the rim of the larger one, ice rose in a sur- 
rounding ring two or three meters high, suggesting that 
earlier in the year this basin was a cone, and possibly 
a hollow cone. The depth in the ice floor, in both cases, 
was about one and a half meters, and each basin 
contained some thirty centimeters in depth of water. 
They reminded me of the rock basins one sees in 



EXPERIENCES IN GLACIERES. " 21 

mountain torrents, where an eddying current has worn 
smooth all the edges of the rocks. From the larger of 
these basins, a channel .as deep as the basin ran to the 
lowest point of the cave. This channel was cut out by 
the overflow, which ran through it in a tiny stream.^ 

THE SCHAFLOCH. 

The Schafloch, on the Rothhorn, near the Lake of 
Thoune, is one of the biggest glacieres in the Alps. 
On the 15th of August, 1895, after early coffee, made 
by the portier of the Hotel Belvedere at Interlaken, I 
drove to Merligen, on the north shore of the lake, with 
Emil Von Allmen, an excellent guide. We left Merligen 
on foot at a quarter before seven, and, making no stops 
on the way, reached the Schafloch at ten minutes past 
ten. The path mounts gently up the Wiiste Thai, which 
higher up is called the Justiz Thai, The track through 
the latter is almost on a level, over grassy alps. On the 
right hand rise the steep, almost dolomitic, limestone cliffs 
of the Beatenberg. On the left is the range of the 
Rothhorn, with steep grass and forest slopes below, and 

3 The photographs of the Rositten Alp, of the entrance of the Kolo- 
wratshohle, and of the interior of the Kolowratshohle, were made for 
me on the i6th of July, 1896, by Herr Carl Hintner, Jr., of Salzburg. 
The two latter photographs are, I believe, the first good ones ever 
obtained of the inside of the cave. They were taken without artificial 
light on quick plates ; the best of the two received an hour and a half, 
the other two hours' exposure. The photographer said at first that 
it was not possible to succeed, and it was only by promising to pay 
him in any case, that he could be induced to try. 



22 GLACI^RES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

limestone cliffs above. The last hour of the walk was 
up these slopes, by what Baedeker calls a " giddy path.'* 
By leaving the word "giddy" out, his description is ac- 
curate. The cavern is at the base of the limestone cliff, 
and the grass slope extends up to it. 

The entrance to the Schafloch is at an altitude of 1752 
meters : it is a fine archway, and a low wall is built partly 
across it. In front of this, we sat down and consumed our 
chicken and cheese, and that best of a traveller's drinks, 
cold tea. The day was windless, and when I lighted a 
cigar, to see whether there was any draught at the en- 
trance, the smoke rose straight up, showing that the air 
was perfectly still. When we were sufficiently cooled 
off, we entered the cave. The entrance faces east-south- 
east, but after about ten meters the cavern takes a sharp 
turn to the left, forming a sort of elbow, and runs about 
due south, constantly descending in an almost straight 
line. For the first eighty meters or so, the floor was 
covered with blocks of fallen limestone, among which we 
had to carefully pick our way. Then we began to find Ice, 
which, a few meters further on, spread out across the 
entire width of the cave, with a gentle slope towards the 
left. The surface of the ice was rather soft, and the whole 
cave was evidently in a state of thaw. A few scratches 
with the axe — the most invaluable friend in an ice cave — 
were necessary at one place to improve our footing. It 
would have been impossible to move here without a light, 
and I carried our torch, made of rope dipped in pitch, which 
occasionally dropped black reminders on my clothes. We 




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EXPERIENCES IN GLACIERES. 23 

were in the middle of a great ice sheet to which several 
fissure columns streamed. On the right hand a beautiful 
ice stalactite flowed from the roof to the floor; it was 
some five meters high, and perhaps seventy-five centi- 
meters in diameter, and swelled out slightly at the base. 
On the left hand were three or four ice stalagmites, shaped 
like pyramids or cones. 

One of these cones was especially remarkable. It was 
at least five meters high — Von Allmen said eight — and 
at the bottom was about four meters in diameter. The 
base of this cone was entirely hollow. There was a break 
on one side by which we could enter, and we then stood on 
a rock floor with a small ice dome or vault overhead. I 
have seen no other hollow cone like this. The guide 
lighted a red Bengal fire inside, when the whole pyramid 
glowed with a delicate pink light, resembling Alpengluhn. 
Near this cone stood the half of another ice cone. It was 
quite perfect, and the missing half was cut off perpendic- 
ularly, as if with a huge cleaver. A hollow in the base of 
the remnant showed that this cone must have been origi- 
nally also a hollow cone, and its destruction was probably 
due to the change in the temperature of the drip from 
the roof, at the setting in of the summer thaw. 

Just beyond the cones, the ice floor steepens and curls 
over into a big ice slope, one of the finest I have seen. 
Von Allmen spoke of this as der gletscher, an expres- 
sion I never heard applied elsewhere to subterranean 
ice. On the right side, the slope would be difficult to 
descend in the darkness. On the left, the slope is gentle 



24 GLAClfeRES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

and a rock juts out a little way down. Von Allmen 
insisted on roping — an unnecessary safeguard — but he 
said: '*If you slip, you will probably break an arm or 
a leg, and then we shall be in a nice mess." He then 
cut about twelve steps in the ice, down to the rock, while 
I shed light on the performance with our torch. We 
were so completely away from daylight that black was 
the predominating color ; and even the ice was a dark 
gray, and only appeared white in the high lights. Be- 
low the rock, we found a narrow strip on the left side 
of the ice slope free from ice and blocked with boul- 
ders, over which we carefully picked our way down. At 
the bottom, the ice expanded into a level surface, stretch- 
ing nearly to the end of the cave. There were only a 
few fissure columns in this part of the cavern, where the 
most remarkable feature was the cracks in the rock 
walls, which were so regular in formation that they 
almost looked like man's handiwork. The rocks are 
free from stalactites, and in fact stalactites seem a good 
deal of a rarity in glacieres. 

On retracing our steps, we saw, when the first glim- 
mers of daylight became perceptible, the rocks assume a 
brilliant blue color, as if they were flooded with moon- 
light. This effect lasted until near the mouth of the 

cavern. 

demenyfAlva jegbarlang. 

A little west of Poprad, in Northern Hungary, on 
the railroad between Sillein and Kassa, is the village of 
Liptos Szt Miklos, to which place I journeyed on the 



EXPERIENCES IN GLACIERES. 25 

1 2th of June, 1896. The conductor was the only man 
on the train or at any of the stations who would admit 
that there was a glaciere at Demenyfalva, and that it 
was feasible to get into it : every one else professed 
entire ignorance on the subject. It is perhaps, worth 
noting at this time that it is always difficult to get any 
information about glacieres ; in fact, the advice about 
cooking a hare might well be applied to glaciere hunt- 
ing : first catch your glaciere. 

The scenery between Sillein and Miklos was pictur- 
esque. The hills were covered with forest. In one place, 
the railroad ran through a beautiful mountain gorge 
alongside a river, where a number of rafts were floating 
down. There were also some primitive ferries, where a 
rope was stretched across the river, and the force of the 
current carried the ferryboat across, once it was started. 
Many peasants were at work in the fields ; often in 
squads. White, blue, brown, and a dash of red were 
the predominating colors in their dress. The men wore 
white trousers, made of a kind of blanket stuff, and a 
leather, heelless moccasin of nearly natural shape. Almost 
all the women had bare feet ; those of the older ones were 
generally shaped according to Nature's own form, while 
those of the younger ones were generally distorted from 
wearing fashionable shoes. We went past several villages 
of huts with thatched roofs, something like the Russian 
villages one sees beyond Moscow, only less primitive. 

The inn at Miklos was poor, and as at Dobsina, the 
pigs lived in the yard and occasionally came for an 



26 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

interview under the covered doorway. Inquiries elicited 
the information that Demenyfalva could be reached by 
carriage, so I engaged one at the livery stable. The 
owner told me that about twenty years before, he leased 
the glaciere and carried on a regular business in sup- 
plying Buda-Pest with ice. He had thirty lamps put in 
to give light to the workmen, who brought up the ice in 
baskets on their backs. 

At half past five o'clock next morning the carriage, 
which was innocent of paint, lined with a sort of basket 
work and without springs, but certainly strongly built, 
stood at the door. A boy of about eighteen years of 
age, who could speak German, went along as interpreter. 
The morning was dismal, and, every quarter of an hour 
or so, a shower of thick mist fell and gradually made 
us damp and uncomfortable. After about twenty min- 
utes on a pretty bad road, we came to a place where 
there was a fork, and the driver turned to the left, over 
a track which consisted of two deep ruts through the 
fields. Soon after, we heard some shouting behind us, 
and a fierce-looking man, in a leather jacket and carry- 
ing a large axe, came up and abused the driver. He 
was not an agreeable person ; however, presently he 
simmered down and began to smile. It turned out that 
he was a wdchter^ that is, a guardian of the fields, and 
that we were trespassing. The driver meekly promised 
to return by the other route, and we went on our way 
in peace. After awhile, we drove into some woods and 
then into a mountain gorge, with forest-covered slopes 




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EXPERIENCES IN GLACIERES. 27 

at the base and with Hmestone cliffs jutting out above. 
Here we came to the cottage of the wackier or forster 
of the surrounding woods, who also acted as guide to 
the cave, for the few tourists who came to see it ; and 
when he heard of our destination, he at once slipped 
on a second ragged coat, took a woodman's axe and 
started on foot, going much faster than the carriage. 
This was not surprising, for the road resembled nothing 
but the bed of a mountain ,brook, a mass of boulders 
with ruts between them. This highway was made by 
the peasants driving their carts over the plain in the 
same place, and as the soil was cut away, the boulders 
appeared ; and over and among these we went banging 
along, and we were jolted about and bumped into each 
other, until every bone in my body ached. 

At a quarter past seven o'clock we came to another 
house in a little glade, where the carriage stopped ; and on 
asking the forster for his name, he wrote down in my note 
book, in a clear well formed hand: — Misura, Franz. From 
the glade, ten minutes' walk on a mountain path, up an 
easy slope, took us to the entrance of Demenyfalva. It is 
about two meters wide by three quarters of a meter high. 
We passed through and entered a large chamber, well 
lighted from the right by another opening, which is 
higher up and bigger than the entrance. The air in 
this chamber was at about the same temperature as that 
of the outside air, and, on our return from the nether 
world, it seemed positively balmy. In the floor at the end 
of the chamber, a small pit yawns open. It is perpendic- 



28 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

ular on three sides and set at a sharp angle on the fourth. 
A wooden staircase of some two hundred steps, many of 
which are sadly out of repair, leads nearly straight down 
this slope to the glaciere. 

After descending about eighty steps of the staircase, 
bits of ice appeared on the walls and floor and after some 
thirty steps more, a lateral gallery opened to the right, 
and into this we turned. This may be called the upper 
cave or story, for in Demenyfalva — besides the entrance 
chamber — there are practically two stories, the upper one 
of which is mainly ornamented with stalactites, the lower 
one with ice. There was a little ice on the floor from 
which rose some small ice columns, perhaps fifty centi- 
meters in height. The cave or gallery had a gentle 
downward slope and turned towards the left. After some 
little distance, we came to another wooden staircase, of 
ten or twelve steps, quite coated over with thick, solid ice. 
Misura had to cut away at it for several minutes, before he 
could clear the steps enough to descend. This was in 
fact the beginning of an ice wall, the Eiswand or Eis- 
Tnauer, which, turning to the right, flowed through a rock 
arch to the lowest cave. The rock arch or portal was 
some three meters wide and two meters high, and a 
fringe of beautiful organ-pipe like icicles hung on it on 
the right hand. Just beyond the portal the ice sloped 
steeply for a couple of meters ; then it became level and 
on it rose a little pyramid, a meter and a half in height 
perhaps, and a column ; then the ice sloped away again 
to the lower cave. 



EXPERIENCES IN GLACIERES. 



29 



We then continued our course beyond the rock portal 
along the upper cavern for about two hundred meters. 
It was a fine large gallery or passage and during the 
first fifty meters or so, we found numerous small ice 
cones, perhaps a hundred of them, from tiny little ones 
to some about forty centimeters in height. Many of 
these were columnar in form, nearly as large at the top 




Fig. 4. Vertical Section of D^menyfAlva. 

as at the base : in some cases the top was flat, and 
the columns then looked almost as if an upper portion 
were sawn off. I have seen this shape of column no- 
where else. In places there were slabs and bits of ice 
on the floor. The last hundred meters of this upper 
cave was free from ice and was exceptionally dry. It 
was formed of a pale yellow limestone rock, almost dolo- 
mitic in color, and many stalactites, in their thousand 



30 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

various shapes, hung from the roof and on the sides. 
In one spot, one big limestone stalagmite towered up 
directly in the middle of the gallery. We did not go to 
the end of the cave, where ice has never been found. 

Retracing our course past the rock portal to the en- 
trance pit, we descended on the long staircase for some 
eighty steps more, the amount of ice on the rocks steadily 
increasing. In places, frost crystals had formed in small 
quantities on the roof and walls. At the bottom of the 
pit, another lateral gallery, directly under the upper 
gallery, opened to the right. Entering this, we passed 
over broken limestone debris, which seemed to overlie a 
mass of ice. Limestone stalactites were noticeable all 
through this lower cavern, and frost and icicles had some- 
times formed over them, in which case the ice stalactite 
assumed the form of the limestone stalactite. Advancing 
a few meters, we went by, on our right hand, an ice pyra- 
mid of a couple of meters in height. Just beyond this, the 
cave turned to the left like the upper cave, and we de- 
scended to a level floor of transparent ice, into which we 
could see some distance. At this spot, numerous icicles, 
generally of inconsiderable size, hung from the roof and on 
the sides of the cavern. 

At the further end of this ice floor or ice lake we 
reached an ice slope, the Eiswand, which flowed to the ice 
floor from the upper cave in several waves. It was some 
six meters wide and twenty-five meters long ; and it was 
not steep, perhaps fifteen degrees in the steepest portions. 
On the slope some old, nearly obliterated steps were visi- 



EXPERIENCES IN GLACIERES. 3 1 

ble, and at these Misura proceeded to cut, and with torch in 
one hand and axe in the other, gradually worked his way 
up, until he once more reached the level spot whence we 
had looked down the ice slope. Here he stood waving his 
torch, a proceeding indeed he did constantly throughout 
the trip, for he seemed exceedingly proud of the beauties 
of his cavern. This waving of torches, however, is ex- 
ceedingly foolish, as their smoke quickly blackens stalac- 
tite, and in fact nothing but candles and magnesium wire 
should be carried for lighting purposes underground. The 
ice of the ice slope was hard, gray and opaque, quite 
different from that of the ice lake. The ice floor is 
formed of new ice, which is gradually refilling the place 
from which Misura said the ice for Buda-Pest was taken out 
twenty-five years ago. To prove this assertion, he called 
my attention to the side of the lake directly opposite the 
ice slope. At that spot, under the limestone rubbish over 
which we came, there was an outcrop of perpendicular 
opaque ice about a meter high. Misura said that the 
workmen began to cut at the ice slope and that they 
dug out a couple of meters in depth from the ice lake, 
until they had cut back to where the vertical outcrop . 
was standing. 

The explanation seemed to be in accord with the facts, 
and if so, it would go to show that the ice in this cave is of 
slow formation and great permanency ; as seems also 
proved by the steps on the ice wall, which — we were the first 
party in the cave in 1896 — had remained over from the pre- 
ceding summer. Misura told me he had never seen so much 



32 GLA'CIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

ice nor seen it so hard as during our visit, and he added 
that there was generally water on the ice lake, and he 
thought there would be some in two or three weeks more. 
The greatest quantity of ice in the upper cave was at the 
head of the ice-slope, and it would seem as though there 
must be cracks or fissures in the overhead rocks there, 
through which the water is supplied to feed the ice, not 
only that of the upper cave, but also the larger portion of 
that of the lower cave. 

The heavy winter air would naturally sink down into 
the entrance pit to the lower cavern, and some of it diverge 
into the beginning of the upper cavern, which at first is 
distinctly a down slope. A little beyond the portal at 
the head of the ice slope, the upper cave is either hori- 
zontal or in places slightly ascending. Probably this pre- 
vents the cold air from entering further, and probably 
also, the heat of the earth neutralizes the cold air of 
winter beyond a definite spot. 

The air in the cave seemed absolutely still throughout ; 
it was also extremely dry, undoubtedly because melting 
had not yet begun. The icicles evidently were formed by 
the slow drip freezing as it descended, and there were no 
perceptible cracks nor fissures in the rocks underneath 
them. The facts seem to me to prove that neither 
evaporation nor regelation can be the factors at work in 
making the ice and we may deduce an important rule 
therefrom. When a cave is dry, then the air is dry ; 
when a cave is wet, then the atmosphere is damp. In 
other words, the state of dryness or dampness of glaciere 



EXPERIENCES IN GLACIERES. 2>3 

atmosphere depends on how much the ice is thawing and 
parting with its moisture. 

On our return to the base of the long staircase, and 
while we ascended it, we had an exquisite moonlight effect, 
much resembling the one at the Schafloch. 

THE FRAINER EISLEITHEN. 

About two hours by rail, north of Vienna, is the vil- 
lage of Schoenwald, to which I journeyed on June the 
15th, 1896. At the railroad station there was a K. K. 
Post Omnibus in waiting, which, when it was packed 
with passengers and luggage, drove over to Frain in an 
hour. The admirable road lies across a rolling plain, 
until it reaches the brink of the valley of the Thaya, to 
which it descends in long Alpine zigzags. On the bluff 
overlooking the opposite side of the river, there is a fine 
sckloss. 

I secured the seat next to the driver and questioned 
him about the Eisleithen. Although he had driven on 
this road for five years, without visiting the Eisleithen, 
yet he was positive that they were warm in winter, but 
cold in summer. He said more than once : Desto heisser 
der Sommer, desto mehr das Eis, and in fact was an em- 
phatic exponent of the notions generally held by peasants, 
which some savants have adopted and tried to expound. 
At Frain, I applied at the little hotel for a guide, and was 
entrusted to the care of the hotel boots. He was an 
intelligent, talkative youth, but he insisted also that ''the 
hotter the summer, the more ice there is." However, 



34 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

he was polite, and made up for any shortcomings by 
always addressing me as der gnddige Herr. 

The day was hot, so it took us three-quarters of an 
hour on foot, along the valley of the Thaya, to reach 
the base of the bluff where the Eisleithen are situated, 
at an altitude of about four hundred meters. The hill- 
side is covered with patches of scrubby forest ; and to- 
wards the summit, the entire mass of the hill is honey- 
combed with cracks and the rocks are much broken up. 
After about ten minutes' ascent up a little path, we came 
to small holes, from each of which a current of cool air 
poured out; these holes seemed fairly horizontal, and 
the temperatures were high enough to prove that there 
was no ice within. A little further on, we came to a hole 
or tiny cave among a pile of rocks, where there was 
a painted sign : Eisg7'2cbe. It went down from the mouth, 
and I put my hand well in, but, beyond the length of my 
arm, I could neither see nor measure its shape or depth. 
The air felt cold, but was nowhere near freezing point ; 
nor was it possible to determine whether there was a 
draught : it may or may not be a wind cave. Not far from 
this, there were two gullies, each terminating in a small 
cave. The first gully was planned somewhat like certain 
traps for wild animals, that is, it narrowed gradually from 
the entrance, then became covered over ; and then dwin- 
dled, after some four meters more, into a small descend- 
ing hole, the end of which we could not reach. But we 
got in far enough, to come to large chunks or slabs of 
ice plastered about on the floor and sides. In this cave, 



EXPERIENCES IN GLACIERES. 35 

which was sheltered against sun and wind, the air, as tested 
by the smoke of a cigar, was motionless, and the cave 
seemed unconnected with any air current. The second 
gully terminated in a somewhat larger cave, whose floor 
was well below the entrance ; no ice was visible, however, 
although the air was still and the temperature low. This 
cave may or may not be a glaciere ; but surely it is not 
a cold current cave. 

These Frainer Eisleithen certainly offer an interesting 
field to anyone studying subterranean ice, from the fact 
that there are, in the same rocks, caves without appar- 
ent draughts in summer and containing ice, and caves 
with distinct draughts and no ice. The problem seems 
more intricate than is usually the case, but the solution 
is simply that the two classes of caves happen to be 
found together. 

THE EISHOHLE BEI ROTH. 

The Eifel is one of the bleakest districts of Central 
Europe, and to one entering it from the vineyards and 
the well-inhabited basin of the Rhine, the contrast is im- 
pressive. The railroad rises gradually to a land of com- 
paratively desert appearance, with rocks and trees on the 
heights and a sparse cultivation in the valleys. But, if 
the country is unattractive to the agriculturist, it is in- 
teresting to the geologist, on account of the great 
number of extinct volcanoes. Almost in the centre of 
the Eifel is the little town of GeroUstein, famed for the 
Gerollsteiner Sprudel, which gives forth an effervescence 



36 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

undreamed of by anyone, who has not visited the birth 
place of some of these German table waters. 

About an hour's walk from Gerollstein, on the side 
of a small hill, is situated the little Eishohle bei Roth, 
named after a neighboring village. I went to this place, 
on the 25th of June, 1896, with a young boy as guide. 
The cave is sheltered from the wind by a wood around 
it, among which are many large trees. It is at the base 
of a wall of piled up lava, or at least volcanic, rocks 
which form a sort of cauldron. The entrance is a small 
tunnel some five meters long, which goes straight down 
at an angle of about twenty-five degrees and then turns 
sharply to the left. At the turn, the cave may be per- 
haps one meter in height. We did not go beyond this 
spot, where the air was icy and the temperature sub- 
normal, as the tunnel was blocked up by a large boulder, 
which had evidently recently fallen from the rocks in 
front. There was no ice, as far as we went, and the boy 
said it began three or four meters further in. He told 
me that there was no ice in the cavern in winter, but 
admitted that he had not entered it at that season, so 
that was hearsay. He had heard also that the ice was 
sometimes taken out for sick people, but otherwise it 
was not used. 

It seemed to me that the conditions at Roth show 
that the ice is formed by the cold of winter alone : the 
cave is well below the entrance ; it is the lowest point 
of the surrounding cauldron of rocks and all the cold 
air naturally gravitates to it ; it is sheltered by rocks 



EXPERIENCES IN GLACIERES. '^'J 

and trees from wind or exposure to the rays of the 
sun ; the tunnel faces nearly due north ; and the water 
necessary to supply the ice, easily soaks between the 
lava blocks. 

THE FRAUENMAUERHOHLE. 

Eisenerz, in Eastern Tyrol, is a picturesquely situ- 
ated little town. It is at the bottom of a great valley, 
with mountains all around it. Two of these are bare, 
gaunt limestone peaks, which are decidedly dolomitic in 
form and color. The sharpest of these is to the north. 
It is called the Pfafifenstein and is the beginning of the 
range culminating in the Frauenmauer. On a mountain 
to the east of the town, one sees the iron mines and 
works, whence the town takes its name 'Tronore," and 
whence quantities of iron are taken out every year. The 
mines are said to have been in operation for over a 
thousand years, since about A. D. 800. After the ore 
is taken from the mine and roughly prepared, it is run 
down in small cars through a covered way to the rail- 
road station to be shipped ; and at certain times there 
is a seemingly endless procession of these cars, each 
bearing, besides its load of ore, a miner, with clothes 
and person entirely begrimed to the yellow-brown color 
of the iron. 

As I walked out of the Eisenerz railroad station, an 
old man in Tyrolese costume asked me if I wanted a 
trdger and a guide, so, while he was carrying my valise 
to the hotel, we came to terms. He was one of the 



38 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

patented guides of the district and wore the large badge 
of the Austrian guides. If the size of the badge made 
the guide, one should be safe with Tyrolese, but for 
difficult excursions, it will not do to trust to a guide 
simply because he happens to be "patented"; that is, 
not if one values the safety of one's neck. Next morn- 
ing, July the 9th, 1896, the old guide arrived betimes at 
the hotel and roused me by tapping on the wall below 
my window with his stick. We left at half past five 
o'clock. My companion, who should have known better, 
had not breakfasted, so by the time we reached the 
Gsoll Alp at a quarter-past seven, he was almost tired 
out. He wore the regulation black chamois knee breeches 
and a gamsbart in his hat. He picked many flowers en 
route, ostensibly because they were pretty ; but in real- 
ity, I think, because it gave him the opportunity to re- 
cover his wind. He told me he was sixty-three years 
old, and he certainly went up hill with some difficulty, 
and for the first time in my life, I fairly succeeded in 
showing a clean pair of heels to a patently ter fiihrer on 
a mountain side. At one place he found a large snail 
in the road. This he wrapped up in leaves and placed 
on a rock, and on our return he picked the leaves and 
snail up, and rammed the whole bundle into his pocket, 
informing me that it was excellent Arznei, although he 
did not mention for what complaint. 

The road led up a wooded valley, in a sort of series of 
steps, bits of even ground interspersed by steeper ones, 
with the Pfaffenstein-Frauenmauer limestone peaks poking 




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EXPERIENCES IN GLACIERES. 39 

Up their jagged summits on the left. The sky was clear 
at starting, except in the west, where clouds were form- 
ing, and these gradually overspread the whole sky, and 
finally turned to rain. Just before we reached the Gsoll 
Alp, we went by a huge snow avalanche, which had 
fallen in February and torn a lane clear through the 
pines, bringing down numbers of them with it. The 
remains of the avalanche were banked up on the side 
of the road, which was cut out, and many of the pines 
were still piled on and in the snow. Stopping ten 
minutes at the alp to allow my guide to recuperate on 
some bread and milk, we then crossed the pastures and 
pushed up a rather steep slope by a small path, at one 
place crossing the remains of another avalanche. We 
also came near having the attentions of a little bull which 
was screaming viciously. My guide said it was an ex- 
tremely disagreeable beast, but he did not think it would 
attack him, as he always made a point of giving it 
bread when at the chalet. We reached the entrance of 
the cave at a quarter-past eight. 

A man and a boy from Eisenerz, who had heard I 
was going to the cavern and who wished to profit by 
my guide, caught up with us here. They were much 
disappointed when I told them I should visit only the 
Eiskammer. They went into the cave at the same time 
that we did, and eventually we left them pushing up 
one of the side chambers, with only one torch in 
their possession. My guide said he thought they were 
risking their lives, as there were many holes they might 



40 GLACIlfcRES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

fall Into, besides the probability of their finding them- 
selves in total darkness. He told me that once, while 
In the cavern, he heard distant yells, and, going up the 
gallery whence they proceeded, found a man half dead, 
who said he had tried to come through the mountain 
by himself, had broken his lantern and had remained in 
the darkness an indefinite number of hours; a situation, 
the horror of which could not be realized by anyone who 
has not been underground without a light and felt the 
absolute blackness of a cavern. 

The Frauenmauer is a limestone peak, 1828 meters 
In height, one of several forming a horseshoe round the 
Gsoll Alp. It presents on that side a sheer wall of rock, 
in which there are two holes close together, at an alti- 
tude of 1335 meters. These are the lower openings of the 
Frauenmauerhohle, of which the higher and biggest one 
Is used for an entrance. They are some thirty or forty 
meters from the base of the rock wall, and a flight of 
wooden steps leads up to the entrance opening, which 
is narrow and high. At the top of the steps, we stood 
in the mouth of the cave ; and, going in four or five 
meters, saw the other opening to the left, below us. 
About five meters further, there was one small lump of 
ice, as big as a pumpkin, lying on the ground, but this 
may have been carried there from within. The cavern 
went nearly straight for some twenty-five meters from 
the entrance, rising all the time gently. Then came a 
steep little drop, of some four or five meters, in the 
rock floor, and here a small wooden staircase was 



EXPERIENCES IN GLACIERES. 4 1 

placed. A gallery opened to the right and this was 
the cavern proper, which leads through the mountain. 
It rose considerably and contained no ice as far as we 
went, which was for some distance. The walking was 
bad, as the floor was covered with geroll, that is broken 
detritus. 

Returning and continuing towards the freezing chamber, 
the floor of the cavern began to rise once more, contin- 
uing for some forty-five meters to its highest point, 
which is lower, however, than the top of the entrance, 
an important fact to notice. For, although the floor of 
the cave is considerably higher, at a distance of seventy 
meters within, than the level of the bottom of the en- 
trance ; still, that highest spot is below the level of the 
top of the entrance. This fact, and also the size of the 
gallery, unquestionably explains why the cold air can get 
in as far as it does. At this highest spot we found a 
considerable mass of ice, a couple of cartloads in bulk 
perhaps, which the guide said would melt away later in 
the summer. This was, perhaps, the remains of a fallen 
stalactite. This mass of ice is an interesting point in 
connection with the Frauenmauerhohle, for it shows that 
ice in a cave sometimes forms, even if in small quanti- 
ties, above the level of the base of the entrance. There 
seems no reason why it should not do so, provided 
there is the necessary water supply. Such ice would, 
however, sufler more, as soon as the outside air was 
over freezing point, than would ice which was below the 
level of the entrance. It would probably disappear early 



42 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

in the year, unless the cave were in a latitude or at an 
altitude where snow remained in the open during most 
of the year. 

From this highest point, the cave turns somewhat to 
the left, and the floor begins to slope downward, sinking 
gradually to some six meters below the level of the en- 
trance. Ten meters or so from the highest point, we 
began to find icicles and fissure columns, and about tvventy 



Fig. 5. Vertical Section of the Frauenmauerhohle. 

meters further, we reached an almost level ice floor, 
stretching across the entire width of the cave — some seven 
meters — and extending about fifty meters more to the end 
of the cave. In several places there was much frozen 
rime on the rock walls. There were also a number of 
columns and icicles, though none of any special beauty. 
I broke a piece ofl" one of them, and the ice was trans- 
parent and free from prisms, showing that this column 
was probably of fairly recent origin. Letting a bit melt 
in my mouth, the water tasted pure and sweet. 

In two places, there were abgrtmds, that is, holes 
in the ice. One of these was a wide, deep hole on the 
left side of the cave, between the rock and the ice floor. 
The other was a great hole in the ice floor itself. As 



EXPERIENCES IN GLACIERES. 43 

the edges of both holes sloped sharply, it was impos- 
sible to get near enough to look into either, but I threw 
in lumps of ice, and from the sound should judge that the 
holes were about three meters deep. The hole in the ice 
floor seemed to be cut by drip, and I think they both 
carried off the drainage. 

The ice floor was sloppy and thawing rapidly. At the 
furthest point we reached, within about fifteen meters 
from the end of the ice chamber, we were stopped by an 
accumulation of water lying on the ice. I poked into it 
with my ice axe and found it about twenty centimeters in 
depth. There was a crust of ice on top in places. The 
lake was cold, but I am sure the water was not freezing, 
as I held my hand in it at least a minute without pain. 
The guide assured me that in two weeks or so the lake 
would be completely frozen, provided there was some fine, 
warm weather ; but, if there was rain, he said that it 
would not freeze. By this statement, he unintentionally 
explained, what he asserted was true, namely, that the 
cave froze harder in August than in July. The explana- 
tion of course is, that in fine, dry weather, water does 
not run into the cavern, and then the lake gradually 
drains off, leaving the ice floor free from water ; and this 
the natives interpret to mean that the water has frozen up. 
At the edge of the lake there was a fissure in the 
left hand rock wall, in which my companion assured me 
that a column would shortly form. I absolutely doubt 
this statement, as, if it were true, it would be contrary to 
everything I have seen ; still, I wish I could have returned 



44 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

in August, to verify the matter. I poked my torch up 
the fissure, also felt in with my hand. It was cold, and on 
the rocks inside there was much hoar frost, but I could 
neither see nor feel any ice mass, nor am I sure how 
far the fissure extended. 

The air was still, damp and over freezing point through- 
out the Eiskavivter, and all the signs showed that the cave 
was in a state of thaw. Although the rocks are limestone 
and scarcely blackened by smoke any^vhere, yet as our 
torches did not give much light, the color impression was 
black and gray, like the Schafloch. 

At the hotel the landlord confirmed in every particular 
the story of the cave freezing hardest in August or Sep- 
tember. He had never been there himself, but stated 
that everyone said the same thing, and that many people 
had " broken their heads " trying to account for it. At 
eight o'clock in the evening, my guide came to let me 
know that the man and boy, whom we left trying to pene- 
trate the cave, had just turned up after making all their 
relatives extremely anxious. They were nearly lost, and 
had in general an extremely uncomfortable time. It is 
scarcely to be wondered at that accidents occur in caves 
and on mountains when people, with neither knowledge 
nor proper preparation, go wandering off by themselves 
into the unknown.^ 

*On the evening of June 29th, 1897, I met at Hieflau three Viennese 
tourists who had come that day through the Frauenmauer. They found 
the lake on the ice floor of the Eiskammer, just as I had in 1896. They 
said also, moreover, that they found ice and icicles or ice columns in the 
main cave ; unfortunately, they did not explain clearly in what part. 



EXPERIENCES IN GLACIERES. 45 

THE MILCHHAUSER OF SEELISBERG. 

The summer of 1896, will long be remembered by 
Alpine climbers for the pitiless rain storm, which kept com- 
ing steadily down during the vacation months. It was in the 
midst of this that I arrived at Trieb, on the Lake of Lu- 
cerne, on the 6th of August, to see whether I could find 
the windholes which were reported near Seelisberg. At 
the landing place I found Herr J. M. Ziegler, the owner of 
the Hotel Bellevue at Seelisberg, who promptly secured 
a nice, blond bearded young fellow, a relative of his and 
his knecht, as a guide. It was pouring when we started, 
a proceeding which kept on during our entire excursion. 
We tramped up a narrow road, paved with great stones 
in the old Swiss fashion, and, as my guide truly said, 
awfully steep for horses. 

Half an hour from the boat landing, took us to the first 
milkhouse, which belonged to Herr Ziegler. It was in a 
small patch of woods, and was placed against a cliff, 
where rocks had fallen down and formed a talus of broken 
detritus. The side walls of the house were built out from 
the cliff and roofed over, and the front wall had a doorway 
closed with a wooden door. At the back the detritus or 
ger'dll was built into a vertical, unplastered wall between 
most of the interstices of which, cool air came forth. Sev- 
eral of these interstices were fairly large holes of uncertain 
depth. It was a cool day and the air currents were only 
a little cooler than the temperature outside. 

Another half an hour of uphill walking, partly on roads 



46 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

and partly over soaking meadows, took us to Seelisberg, 
where we stopped at the house of the owner of the second 
milkhouse, to get the key. The owner could not go with 
us because he had damaged his foot, by wearing great 
w^ooden shoes or sabots armed w-ith enormous spikes, while 
cutting grass on steep slopes. He was hospitable enough : 
unlike his dog, who was exceedingly anxious to attack us. 
The owner said — in the intervals of the doom's howls — that 
ice formed during the winter in the rear w^all of his 
milkhouse and remained until about June. The milk- 
house was in a little patch of woods against a small cliff, 
at the bottom of which were broken rocks. We had 
some difficulty in getting in, working for at least ten 
minutes at the lock, while drops of rainwater would oc- 
casionally drip into our coat collars. Just as I had given 
up hope, my companion succeeded in getting the key to 
turn. There were several pans, full of milk, placed to cool, 
and several barrels of potatoes ; and, as at the first milk- 
house, w^e found that the rear wall consisted simply of 
heaped up detritus built Into a vertical position. Gentle 
air currents flowed from several large holes and from the 
cracks betw^een the stones. 

From here w'e went by a path through woods and over 
meadows down to the lake, coming to the shore some dis- 
tance to the west of the steamboat landing. Everything 
was soaking w^et, and as we proceeded, I felt my clothes 
getting wetter and my shoes absorbing water like sponges 
until, w^hen we came to an overflowing brook, wading 
through seemed rather pleasant. There Is one advantage 



EXPERIENCES IN GLACIERES. 47 

of getting thoroughly wet feet in the mountains : it makes 
crossing streams so much easier, as one does not delay, 
but simply steps right in. 

The lower milkhouse was on the shore of the lake, near 
the house of a fisherman, whose wife opened the door for 
us. There was some milk in pans and several barrels of 
wine; and on a board were a number oi ferras from the 
lake ; the result of two days' catching in nets. This was 
the largest of the three milkhouses ; although it did not 
have as many big holes in the rock wall as the others, but 
only the interstices between the blocks of rock, whence 
we could feel cool air flowing out. The woman said that 
the ice melted away by April or May, but that in winter 
the wine barrels were all covered with frost. She also said 
that the air coming from the clefts in summer was colder 
when the weather was warm, than when it was rainy. 
Doubtless the temperature of the draughts remains the 
same during the summer, but the air feels cooler to the 
hand when the outside air is hot. 

A walk of another half hour, through more soaking wet 
grass, brought us back to the steamboat landing at Trieb, 
where I touched my guide's heart with the gift of a five 
franc piece, and had a talk with Herr Ziegler. He said 
that there were a number of places in the neighborhood 
whence cold air came forth during the summer from cracks 
in the rocks : that there were also other milkhouses, notably 
one at Tell's Platte, on the lake : and that the milkhouses 
were not generally used in winter, when the doors were left 
open, to allow the cold air to penetrate as much as possible 



48 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

through the rocks behind. During the winter the draughts 
were reversed, and poured in instead of out of the open- 
ings, and Herr Ziegler thought that at that time the interior 
of the rock cracks became chilled, and that possibly ice 
formed in them which helped to chill the summer currents, 
when the draughts poured out from the holes. 

THE GLACIERE DE LA GENOLLIERE. 

On Tuesday, the nth of August, 1896, a cool and rainy 
day, I left Geneva and went by train to Nyon, where I 
found at the station a little victoria, in which I drove up to 
Saint-Cergues. The road lay across the plain to the base of 
the slopes of the Jura, and then up these in long zigzags ; it 
was admirably built and on the hill slopes passed the whole 
way through a beautiful thick forest, principally beeches 
and birches. At Saint-Cergues, I went to the Pension 
Capt, where the landlady soon found a guide in the shape 
of the gendarme of the district, a right good fellow. Amy 
Aimee Turrian by name. He was in uniform, with an army 
revolver in a holster at his belt. We then drove about 
half an hour beyond Saint-Cergues, the road rising but little, 
and the thick forest giving place to a more open wood of 
evergreens, with patches of pasturage. As a forest sani- 
tarium, Saint-Cergues seems unsurpassed in the whole of 
Europe. The carriage turned up a little country road, 
which soon became too rough for driving, so we proceeded 
on foot for about another half hour, through pine woods 
and pastures, to the glaciere. Turrian enlivened the way 
with an account of his life as a gendarme, of the long soli- 



EXPERIENCES IN GLACIERES. 49 

tary six hour patrols in the woods in winter, and of how 
he lay in ambush for poachers. He said he would not 
take long to fire on anyone resisting arrest, as that was 
serieux. 

The glaciere is in the middle of a pasture, with several 
pine trees overhanging it. It is surrounded by a wall, 
built to prevent the cows from falling in. There are two 
pits, side by side and about three meters apart : they are 
some thirteen meters in depth, with a width of five or six 
meters. They open into one another at the bottom ; the 
rock separating them, forming a natural bridge overhead. 
One of the pits is vertical on all sides. The other is ver- 
tical all around, except on the side furthest away from the 
natural bridge. Here the side of the pit is in the shape, 
so usual in glacieres, of a steep slope. Down this slope 
we descended. It was slippery and muddy, owing to the 
recent heavy rains, and my ice axe proved invaluable and 
probably saved me some unpleasant falls. Under the 
bridge, the floor was covered with a mass of shattered 
limestone debris, among which there was neither ice nor 
snow ; both of which my guide said he had found in 
abundance the preceding June. A little limestone cavern 
opened on one side below the bridge. A great, flat 
limestone slab formed a natural lintel, and, lighting our 
candles, we stooped down and passed under it into the 
cave, which was about the size of a room and in which 
we could just stand up. At the entrance and over most 
of the floor there was ice, in one place thirty or forty 
centimeters in depth, as I could see where a drip from 



50 GLACI^RES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

the roof had cut a hole. There were no signs of icicles or 
columns. My guide said he had never penetrated into this 
chamber, which he thought, on his earlier visit, was blocked 
with ice and snow. I did not see any limestone stalac- 
tites anywhere, and I am inclined to think that the low 
temperatures of glacieres have a tendency to prevent 
their formation. 

After our visit, we went to the Chalet de La Genolli^re 
close by, where there were some thirty cows and calves. 
The intelligent berger or manager said that most of the ice 
from the glaciere was used for butter making during the 
hot weather ; and that between the inroads thus made 
upon it and from other causes, the ice disappeared every 
year before autumn, but that it formed afresh every winter ; 
pretty good evidence to show that the ice in this cave has 
nothing to do with a glacial period. He also stated that 
when he first entered the inner chamber in the spring 
there were four ice columns there. 

The glaciere de La Genolliere is a clear exemplification 
of the theory that the cold of winter is the sole cause for 
the ice. The whole glaciere is rather small and is fairly 
well protected against wind. Although snow cannot fall 
directly under the rock arch, yet I should imagine It drifts 
under, or after melting, runs in and refreezes. To the 
inner cave snow, as snow, could hardly reach ; and the 
cavern is probably filled, like most cave glacieres, from 
frozen drip. The inner cave is, therefore, a true cave 
glaciere, while the outer pits and the bridge are some- 
thing between a gorge and a cave. La Genolliere should, 



EXPERIENCES IN GLACIERES. 5 1 

I think, be visited about the end of June, when the Ice 
formations are certainly larger and more interesting than 
in August. 

THE FRIEDRICHSTEINER OR GOTTSCHEER EISHOHLE. 

A little to the east of, and in about the same latitude 
as Trieste, Is the small town of Gottschee, now reached by 
a branch railroad from Laibach. Gottschee is a German 
settlement almost in the centre of the district known as the 
Duchy of Krain, Austria, which Is mainly Inhabited In 
the north by Slavonians and In the south by Croatians. 
Gottschee lies directly at the western base of the Fried- 
rlchstelner Gebirge, one of whose peaks is the Burgernock. 
On the eastern slopes of this mountain is situated the 
Friedrichsteiner or Gottscheer Eishohle, at an altitude of 
about nine hundred meters. 

On the 24th of June, 1897, I left Gottschee at half past 
six o'clock in the morning with Stefan Klenka, a nice little 
man. I had asked to have him come at six o'clock, but he 
did not turn up and I had to send for him. His excuse 
was, that tourists always ordered him for six o'clock, but 
when the time came, they were still In bed. He had taken 
a German officer and his wife to the cave the year before, 
and after keeping him waiting three hours, they started at 
nine o'clock. The result was that they did not get to the 
cave until two o'clock, and returned to Gottschee just at 
nightfall. 

We reached the cave at half past eight o'clock. The 
steep and rough path went uphill through a fine forest, 



52 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

which my guide said was Urwald, i. e., primeval forest ; and 
there were certainly som-e big trees and many fallen ones, 
and much underbrush. He assured me that bears were 
still plentiful in the neighborhood, and that Prince Auers- 
perg, who owns the shooting, does not allow them to be 
killed, preferring to pay for any damage they may cause 
to the peasants' fields or for any cattle they may dine on, 
rather than to have these interesting animals exterminated 
from his woods. He also said that there was a two meter 
snowfall in Gottschee in winter : a sufficient quantity to 
account for the glacieres. At one place on the road we 
stopped before a small crack in the rocks, and Klenka 
dropped in some small stones, which we could hear strike 
two or three times a long distance below. There is surely 
an unexplored cavern at this spot. 

The Friedrichsteiner Eishohle is a large pit cave, well 
lighted by daylight. It is sheltered from any winds by 
the great trees which grow all around it and even over the 
rock roof. A long, steep slope leads straight into the pit 
and from the top the ice floor is in full sight. On both 
sides of the slope the rocks are almost sheer. Over the 
bottom of the slope the rock roof projects at a great 
height. The sides of the cave rise perpendicularly at 
least forty meters, and in fact, the cave suggests an un- 
finished tunnel set on end. 

Some years ago, the Deutschen und Oesterreichischen 
Alpen Verein built a wooden staircase, in a series of zig- 
zags, on the slope. This staircase should have been 
cleared off earlier in the year, but, of course, the matter 



EXPERIENCES IN GLACIERES. 53 

was neglected. Down these steps we descended until they 
became covered with snow, and lower down with hard ice. 
All this was winter's snow which fell directly on to the 
slope and gradually melted and froze again, so this was 
really a miniature glacier. It was not subterranean ice at 
all. We cut down the snow, but had to stop when we came 
to the ice, as it would have involved a couple of hours at 
least of the hardest kind of step cutting ; and this my guide 
did not care to undertake, especially as he was nearly 
killed on this slope the week before. He had reached, 
with some tourists from Trieste, a place above that where 
we stopped, when he slipped and fell down the slope, shoot- 
ing clear across the cave, where he remained until ropes 
were procured, and he was dragged out. He afterwards 
showed me the numerous cuts and bruises he had received 
on his perilous glissade. 

We had to stop also for another reason. I had un- 
wisely brought as wrap, a thick overcoat reaching to 
the knees, and this was such an impediment on the icy 
staircase, that I took it off, and soon began to feel 
long shivers creeping down my spine. This question 
of extra clothing for glaciere exploration is hard to ar- 
range. One must guard against most trying changes of 
temperature. For, on entering a big glaciere, the heat 
of a July day without, will, at a distance of only a few 
meters, give place to the cold of a January day within, 
and nothing could be better devised than a big glaciere 
to lay the seeds of rheumatism. It is difficult to plan a 
garb suitable to meet all the varying conditions, but the 



54 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

dress must be cool and warm, and light enough to per- 
mit free motion. The clothes I have found most practical 
are a thin waistcoat and thick trousers, and two short 
sack coats, one of them a heavy winter one. The coats 
should button at the throat, and it is well to place straps 
round the bottom of the trousers. Thick kid gloves 
should always be worn in caves, to save cutting the hands 
on rocks or ice in the darkness, and hobnails may pre- 
vent some unpleasant slips. 

From the point where we stopped, some ten meters 
away from the ice floor, the largest portion of the cave 
was visible. The finest object w^as a big ice curtain or 
vorhang, as my guide called it, which, from a height of 
five or six meters, flowed down from fissures to the ice 
floor, and which covered the rocks on the eastern side. 
Under one point of this curtain, Klenka said that there 
was a deep hole in the ice. Smaller fissure columns 
also streamed from the rear wall to the ice floor. The 
ice floor itself was flat, of an ochre greenish tinge, and 
was covered with broken ice fragments. We could not 
see the western portion of the cavern, as the rocks jut- 
ted out in a sort of corner. Klenka said that there 
were several small pyramids there ; a large one which 
he spoke of as the Altar ; and a small ice slope, plas- 
tered on the side rocks. 

The sides of the cave were of a dark gray limestone 
rock, and from the top of the slope they assumed a de- 
cidedly bluish tone, and I am inclined to think that there 
was already — we were there from eight-thirty A. M. 



EXPERIENCES IN GLACIERES. 55 

until ten A. M. — a faint mist in the cavern. This is the 
most interesting phenomenon connected with the Fried- 
richsteiner Eishohle. The cavern faces due south, and 
about midday, in clear weather, the sun shines directly 
into it, causing a mist or cloud to form in the cave on 
warm days ; a mute witness that evaporation is connected 
with the melting, not with the forming, of the ice. The 
air at every point seemed still. 

On my return to Gottschee, I called on one of the 
professors of the K. K. Gymnasium, and he told me 
many interesting facts about the surrounding countr}\ 
Among other things he said that no traces of a glacial 
period or indeed of glaciers were found in the Krain ; 
and as this district is particularly rich in glacieres, this 
fact is a strong proof against the glacial period theory. 
He assured me also that many bears still existed in the 
neighborhood ; that one family was known to inhabit the 
woods round the Friedrichsteiner Eishohle, and that he 
had often seen bear tracks on his own shooting, some 
ten kilometers to the south. 

THE SUCHENREUTHER EISLOCH. 

On the 25th of June, 1897, ^ ^^^ Gottschee at six- 
thirty A. M. in an einspdnner, and drove thirteen kilo- 
meters southward, over a good road, albeit hilly in 
places, to Mrauen, which we reached in about two hours. 
The weather was exceedingly hot. I took Klenka along, 
as he spoke German, and he entertained me on the drive 
by telling me that there were many poisonous snakes in 



56 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

the country, of which the kreuzotters or vipers were the 
worst, and that three or four persons were bitten every 
year. 

Mrauen is in Croatia, and I could see a sHght differ- 
ence in the people and their dress from those of Gott- 
schee. From Mrauen, the landlord of the Gasthaus Post, 
Josef Sirar, led us to the Grosses Eisloch. This is 
sometimes spoken of as the Eisloch bei Skrill, but as it 
lies in a patch of woods below the village of Suchenreuth, 
the Suchenreuther Eisloch seems the correct name. At 
least that was what Sirar called it. It took us about an 
hour on foot from Mrauen to get into the woods. On 
the way we met two guards in uniform, carrying Mann- 
licher carbines with fixed bayonets, and it was agree- 
able to feel that the strong arm of the Austrian govern- 
ment extended over this semi-wild land. In the woods, 
following Sirar's able guidance, we took a short cut — 
always a mistake — and were lost temporarily in a maze 
of bushes and brambles, in which I thought of the kreuz- 
otters. After that, Sirar at first could not find the cave 
and had to hunt around for it, while I sat on a stone and 
waited impatiently. 

At the cave a rather steep slope of wet mud, cov- 
ered with dead leaves, led down through a rock arch. 
Sirar had to cut several steps in the mud with his 
hatchet, or we should probably have sat down suddenly. 
The archway opened into a moderately large cavern, 
which was about twenty meters deep, almost round and 
some fifteen meters in diameter. The slope continued 



EXPERIENCES IN GLACIERES. 



57 



right across the cave, and on some parts of it were logs 
of wood and much debris. On the wall hung a few 
limestone stalactites. In the roof of the cave was a 
great hole, and under this was a big cone of old winter 
snow, which had become icy in its consistency, and on 
which there was much dirt and many leaves. The tem- 




inrm\inrnmm 

Fig. 6. Vertical Section of the Suchenreuther Eisloch. 

perature in the cave was several degrees above freezing 
point, and there was no ice hanging anywhere. Sirar 
said that when the weather got hotter, the ice would come ; 
but as he said also, that he had been only once before 
in the cave, some ten years ago, his opinion was not 
worth much. Both men said that the preceding winter 
was unusually warm. 

THE NIXLOCH. 

Near Hallthurm in Bavaria, a railroad station between 
Reichenhall and Berchtesgaden, is a well known con. 
geries of windholes, called the Nixloch. I visited it 



58 GLACi:^RES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

on Friday, July the 2d, 1897, with a railroad employee, 
whom I found at the peasants' gasthaus. 

The Nixloch is ten minutes distant in the forest, on 
the slopes of the Untersberg. It is among a mass of 
big limestone blocks, and close by are the remains of 
the walls of an old castle or fortification. The Nixloch 
descends from the entrance for about two meters nearly 
sheer, and there is just room to get through. As I sat 
within the outside edge of the mouth of the cave, the 
smoke of my cigar was slowly carried downward into it. 

Dropping down through the hole, we found ourselves 
in a small cavern formed of rough limestone blocks over- 
head and underfoot. It is possible to go still further 
down and my companion said that formerly it was pos- 
sible to go through the cave and come out at a lower 
opening ; this exit, however, was destroyed when the 
railroad was built. The draught, as tested by the flame 
of a candle, was still drawing in some seven or eight 
meters from the entrance. There is a second cavity 
immediately next to the entrance, and at the bottom 
of these holes, the inward draught was so violent as to 
blow the candle out. The thermometer outside in the 
shade was 28° C. ; inside the cave, where the draught 
was still perceptible, it was about 20° C. Within the 
cave I noticed two large, dark brown spiders. 

On returning to the gasthaus, I had a talk with some 
peasants who were dining there, and they told me that 
it was warm in winter in the Nixloch, and that ice never 
formed there. 



EXPERIENCES IN GLACIERES. 59 

THE DORNBURG. 

If one draws a line northeast from Coblentz and 
another northwest from Frankfort-on-the-Main, they will 
intersect nearly at the Dornburg. The railroad from 
Frankfort goes, via Limburg and Hadamar, to Frickhofen 
and Wilsenroth, from either of which villages the ice 
formations of the Dornburg are easily reached on foot 
in half an hour. 

I arrived at Wilsenroth on the 26th of July, 1897, 
and soon found an old forester, who said he had lived 
in the neighborhood for over fifty years, to show me the 
way. The Dornburg is a low hill, perhaps a hundred 
meters high and a kilometer long. It is basaltic and 
covered with sparse woods. The forester said that on 
top were the remains of the foundations of an old castle, 
and that this was possibly the origin of the name Dorn- 
burg. We circled round the eastern base of the hill for 
some ten minutes, when we came to a little depression, 
filled with basalt debris, among which were several small 
holes, out of which came currents of cool air. 

Ten minutes further in the woods, we arrived at the 
Dornburg Restauration and then almost immediately at 
the glaciere. It is at the bottom of a talus of broken ba- 
saltic rocks and has been much affected by the agency of 
man. In it are two eislocher or stollen, as the forester 
called them. These are little artificial pits or cellars, dug 
into the talus. They are side by side, opening about 
southeast, and each is about one and a half meters wide, 



60 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

three meters long, and two meters high. The sides are 
built up with wooden posts and overhead is a thick roof 
of logs strewn with dirt. The day was cool and at the 
mouth of each eisloch, a faint outward current of air was 
discernible at nine-thirty A. M. I could not find any cur- 
rents coming into the eislocher. Inside it was cold and 
damp, and evidently thawing. There was a good heap of 
ice in each eisloch ; it was clear, and I could detect no trace 
of prisms. 

By much questioning, I dug out something of the his- 
tor)- of these stolle^i from the forester. Formerly the ice 
was found at this spot, among the boulders at the base of 
the slope. But the people gradually took many of these 
basaltic blocks away, to break up for road making, and 
then the ice diminished. About 1870, a brewer)-, since 
burnt, was built at the Dornburg and the brewer had 
these stolle7i built, a sort of semi-natural, semi-artificial ice 
house. Ever)' winter, the present owner of the stollen 
throws a quantit)/' of snow into them, and this helps ma- 
terially in forming the mass of ice. 

Just below the restaurant there is a spring, which was 
said to be extremely cold, but there was nothing icy nor 
apparently unusual about it. 

Under the restaurant itself is an interesting cellar. It 
w^as closed by w^ooden doors. First there was a passage 
way which turned steadily to the right, and which we de- 
scended by some ten steps. This was about two meters 
wide and was full of beer bottles and vegetables. On 
the left of the passage was a large double chamber where 



EXPERIENCES IN GLACIERES. 6 1 

meat is kept. At eleven-thirty A. M. a faint draught blew 
down the passage and into the hall, the outside door being 
then open. The double hall was perhaps six meters each 
way, and I could detect no air currents coming into it at 
any place, except from the passage way. Both passage 
and halls were, as far as I could see, entirely built over 
with masonry. There was no ice and the temperature 
was some 7° or 8° above freezing point. 

The daughter of the proprietor of the restaurant said 
that ice began to form in the cellar in February and that 
it lasted generally until October; but that this year it 
was destroyed early because the masonry was repaired, 
although it was still possible to skate in the cellar as late 
as March. In the beginning of winter the cellar was warm, 
and as she expressed it, der Keller schwitzt dann, which 
I suppose means that the walls are damp. She also 
said that it was a naturlicher Keller, and I am inclined 
to think that it was a natural glaciere, converted into a 
cellar. 

This visit to the Dornburg gave me many new ideas 
about classifying glacieres, especially in relation to the 
movements of air. I was long puzzled by the German 
terms, Eishohlen and Windrohren ; and it suddenly struck 
me, at the Dornburg, that this terminology is incorrect, 
when used as a classification of glacieres. The presence 
or absence of strong, apparent draughts, cannot be con- 
sidered as a test as to whether a place is or is not a 
glaciere ; the presence of ice, for at least part of the 
year, alone makes a glaciere, and this it does whether 



62 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

there are or are not draughts. It seems to me more 
than ever clear, however, that it all depends on the 
movements of air, as to whether ice forms in a cave. If 
the movements of air take the cold air of winter into a 
cave, then and then only — provided there is also a water 
supply — do we have ice. I am now inclined to think 
that caves, as far as their temperatures are concerned, 
should be classified into caves containing ice, cold caves, 
ordinary normal caves, and hot caves, without reference 
to the movements of air. 

THE GLACIERE DE SAINT-GEORGES. 

From Rolle, on the north shore of the Lake of 
Geneva, an excellent carriage road leads in two hours 
and a half to Saint-Georges in the Jura. At first the way 
goes steeply uphill and passes through many vineyards, 
and afterwards it crosses level fields to Gimel, then rises 
through woods to Saint-Georges. On arriving there on 
the afternoon of August 3d, 1897, ^ found the street 
filled with evergreens, and long benches and tables; the 
debris of a fete de tir, which had lasted for two days, 
with dancing and banquets and, I suspect, much vin du 
pays. 

When I got down stairs at six o'clock next morning, 
all the people of the inn were sound asleep recovering 
from the effects of the fete, and instead of their calling 
me, I had to call them. Finally I succeeded in getting 
breakfast and then started in company with a first rate 
fellow, named Aymon Emery. 




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EXPERIENCES IN GLACIERES. 63 

We walked up through woods, in about an hour and a 
half, to the Glaciere de Saint-Georges, which lies at an 
altitude of 1287 meters in the midst of the forest. There 
are two holes close together. One of these descends 
vertically and is partly roofed over with logs on which is 
rigged a pulley. Emery, who was the entrepreneur of the 
glaciere, which means that he attended to getting out the 
ice, told me that they pulled the ice up through this 
vertical hole, making a noose with a rope round each 
block. 

The other and shallower opening ended in a rock 
floor, which was reached by a short ladder. To the right 
was an arch, under which the rock terminated as a floor 
and descended vertically, forming the wall of the cave. 
On this wall two ladders, spliced at the end into one 
long ladder, were placed in a nearly vertical position. I 
tied the end of my rope round my waist, and got a work- 
man, who had come to cut ice, to pay out the rope to me, 
while I went down. 

The cave is rather long and narrow, perhaps twenty- 
five meters by twelve meters, and the limestone roof 
forms an arched descending curve overhead. I could not 
see any limestone stalactites ; neither were there any ice 
stalactites or stalagmites in the cave, but a good part of 
the wall, against which the long ladder was placed, was 
covered by an ice curtain. It was thin and had evidently 
been damaged by the ice cutters or I think it would have 
covered the entire lower portion of the wall. 

The base of the long ladder rested on an ice floor 



64 • GLACI^RES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

which filled the bottom of the cave, and which would 
probably have been level if it had not been cut out here 
and there in places, leaving many holes. A good many 
broken ice fragments lay on the floor and in some of 
the holes were pools of water. Some of the floor ice 




Fig. 7. Vertical Section of the Glaciere de Saint-Georges. 

was exceedingly prismatic in character, and I was able to 
flake it off or break it easily with my hands into prisms. 

Under the vertical shaft, which is at one end of the 
cave, was a mass of winter's snow which had fallen 
through the opening. Under this snow was a deep hole, 
which I believe was the drain hole of the glaciere before 
the ice floor was cut away to a level below its mouth. 



EXPERIENCES IN GLACIERES. 65 

Into this hole I threw lumps of ice and heard them go 
bumping down for three or four seconds. 

The atmosphere was not uncomfortable, although the 
temperature was about 7° C. The air did not feel damp, 
and seemed almost still, but standing on the ice floor 
nearly under the vertical hole, I found that the smoke 
from my cigar ascended rapidly, and it seemed as if 
there were a rising air current, which sucked up the 
smoke. 

Saint-Georges is a fine cavern and well worth visiting. 
Emery said that the ice was not cut out for eight years 
preceding the summer of 1897, ^.nd that for several years 
it was not possible to go down at all, as there were no 
ladders, until he put in the two we utilized.^ All the 
natives of Saint-Georges believed that the ice was a 
summer formation and that it was warm in the cave in 
winter. 

THE GLACIERE DU PRE DE SAINT-LIVRES. 

From the Glaciere de Saint-Georges, Emery and I 
pushed on through the woods to the Pre de Saint-Livres. 
In several places we came on the tracks of deer, and my 
guide told me he had killed eleven roe during the last 
hunting season. He said also that an attempt is being 

^ In the illustration of the Glaciere de Saint-Georges, the opening 
to the left is the vertical pit, through which the ice is taken out : under- 
neath it, is the heap of winter snow. The man in the upper part of 
the picture is standing on the rock shelf at the base of the upper 
ladder and at the top of the lower ladder. To the right of the lower 
ladder near the bottom, a bit of the ice curtain is visible. 



66 GLACI^RES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

made to introduce the red deer into the Jura, and that 
the experiment seemed to be meeting with success. We 
kept to the crest of the ridge along wood paths, and, as 
the day was fortunately cool and cloudy, we were able to 
walk fast and reached the Pre de Saint-Livres in two 
hours. At a spot called La Foiraudaz we met the work- 
men coming down with a cartload of ice, which they 
were taking to Biere. Some of this ice was extremely 
prismatic. 

The Pre de Saint-Livres is a big mountain pasture or 
meadow, surrounded with hills covered with pine trees. 
In the middle of it is the Chalet de Saint-Livres, round 
which numerous cows and calves were congregated and 
where a small shepherd gave us some milk. The chalet 
is not one of the old picturesque Swiss chalets with great 
stones on the roof to keep it from being blown away by 
the wind, but a strongly built single storied stone 
structure, which looks extremely modern among the green 
hills. 

The glaciere lies close to the chalet, on the southern 
side of the meadows, just on the edge of the woods, and 
is surrounded with trees. It is at an altitude of 1362 
meters and faces nearly due north. To prevent the cattle 
from falling in, it is enclosed with a stone wall, except in 
front, where there is a fence formed of an abattis of 
pine trees. The cave belongs to the pit variety, and the 
pit is a big one. As you stand at the top, you can look 
down to the end of the glaciere. The rocks are vertical 
all round the pit, and in front there is a small rock 



EXPERIENCES IN GLACIERES. 67 

shelf, one-third of the way down, which divides the rock 
wall into two long drops. Against each of these was a 
rickety ladder, so we fixed the end of my rope to the pine 
trees of the fence, and hung on to it while we climbed 
down. The base of the lower and longer ladder rested 
on a mass of snow. This was the beginning of a long 
snow slope which gradually turned to ice and filled the 
cave. The cave itself, measuring along the snow slope, 
is some forty meters long and some ten to fifteen meters 
wide, and is entirely lighted by daylight. 

The snow and ice slope fell in a series of small waves, 
and the upper portion was rather dirty. On the right 
hand the workmen had fixed a rope as a handrail, and all 
the way down had cut a staircase in the ice, so that the 
descent was not difficult. Some of the ice was sloppy. 
The ice mass did not abut entirely against the end of the 
cave, but left an open space between the ice and the rock, 
some three or four meters wide and some four or five 
meters deep. Here the workmen had been getting their 
ice, and had cut into the ice mass for several meters, 
forming a little tunnel. 

There were no ice cones nor stalactites, neither did I 
see any limestone stalactites. Much of the ice was pris- 
matic ; in fact, together with that at Saint-Georges, it 
was the most strongly prismatic I have seen. I can per- 
haps best describe it, by saying that it was brittle in 
texture, as I could break up small lumps in my hands. 
There was more prismatic ice at Saint-Livres, however, 
than at Saint-Georges. The air in the cave was still 



68 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

and decidedly damp ; and the temperature was several 
degrees above freezing point. The day, however, was 
almost windless, and I would not assert that movements 
of air, due to the wind, might not sometimes take place 
in the pit. 

The Glaciere du Pre de Saint-Livres is one of those 
caves which mav be looked on as a transitional form 
between gorges containing ice and caves containing ice. 
The winter snow falls into the mouth of the pit, and 
is the chief foundation of the ice mass. It would be 
interesting to make a series of obser^'ations in this cave 
to see whether there was anything like glacier motion. 
Emer)', of his own accord, expressed the opinion that 
much of the ice here was due to the winter snows ; in 
fact, he thought that it was all due to it, and that it 
gradually descended into the cave and turned, little by 
little, into ice. He told me that some years ago a cow 
was found by the workmen, frozen into the ice, at a depth 
of four meters ; the flesh was perfectly preserved, and was 
eaten. I asked him if he had ever seen insects in either 
cave, and he said he had not. 

From the glaciere we walked back to the village 
of Saint-Georges. On asking my guide how much I 
owed him, he said he received four francs for a jou^mee. 
so I gave him six francs, and we parted the best of friends. 

GLACIER ICE CAVE IN THE FEE GLACIER. 

During a rather protracted stay at Saas-Fee in Switzer- 
land, I visited the glacier ice cave of the Fee Glacier on 



EXPERIENCES IN GLACIERES. 69 

the 15th and i6th of August, 1897, both cool and rainy 
days. It is about half an hour's walk from the hotel to 
the ice cave, which is in the snout of the Fee glacier, 
below the Eggfluh. A considerable stream issued from 
the cave. On nearing the opening, a strong cold air 
current poured out above the stream. At the front edge 
of the ice, the height of the ice roof in the centre was 
perhaps twelve meters and the width fifteen meters. 
Around the edge, the roof formed an almost perfect 
curve. The ice walls contracted in a regular manner 
within, and the cave became narrower and lower, and 
suggested an enormous funnel cut in half, into which 
you looked from the larger end. The cave also grew 
gradually darker, and the darkness prevented seeing 
further than to a depth of some fifteen meters. In the ice 
walls, just inside the entrance, were several crevasses, of 
the ordinary blue-green color. They followed nearly the 
same curve as the roof, but did not go through to the 
outside. There were no icicles. The ice was faintly 
stratified in places, and at the outer edge was brittle. It 
did not break into the long narrow prisms of the ice at 
Saint-Georges and the Pre de Saint-Livres, but rather into 
small lumps with facets, of all sorts of shapes. It was 
evidently unsafe to penetrate under the ice roof, for while 
I stood in front of the cave, a large lump broke off from 
the roof and fell with a clatter among a lot of other ice 
fragments already on the moraine floor. In two places 
there was a steady rain of drops from the roof, show- 
ing that the ice was melting. 



70 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

This is perhaps the glacier cave in Switzerland which 
is easiest to visit, and my inspection intensified my be- 
lief in what I consider the correct explanation of some of 
the phenomena in glacieres. The suggestion was that as 
soon as the temperature gets above freezing point in a 
glacier ice cave, the only process is that of destruction of 
the ice, which seems to be also the case with glacieres. 

LA GRAND CAVE DE MONTARQUIS. 

My brother and I left Cluses, in Savoie, a railroad 
station on the line between Geneva and Chamonix, at 
two o'clock on the afternoon of the 2 2d of August, 
1897, 2,nd drove up in two hours and a half to 
Pralong du Reposoir, a distance of eleven kilometers. 
The road is a route nationale, fine and broad, with para- 
pets in many places. After passing Scionzier, it mounts 
gradually, passing through a tremendous wild gorge, cut 
by the waters and heavily clad with firs. We reached 
Pralong at four-thirty, and stopped at a primitive inn, still 
in process of construction, and tenanted only by blue- 
bloused peasants, who, as it was Sunday night, sat up 
late, drinking and making a heathenish noise they mistook 
for singing. I talked to some of these men, and they all 
insisted that there was no ice at the Grand Cave in 
winter, but that it came in summer. Phis il fait chaud, 
plus (a gele, they said. One man explained the forma- 
tion of the ice in an original way, and with an intelligence 
far above that of the average peasant. He considered 
that it was due to air currents, and thought that in winter 



EXPERIENCES IN GLACIERES. 7 1 

the snow stopped up the holes in the rocks, through which 
the currents came ; but that when the snow melted, the 
draughts could work, and that then they formed the ice. 

The weather was abominable next morning, the clouds 
lying along and dripping into the valley ; but the inn was 
so awful that we decided to try to reach the cave. We had 
a nice little blue-bloused peasant for a guide, Sylvain Jean 
Cotterlaz by name. We went first for about an hour on 
foot towards Le Grand Bornant on a fair road, to an alp 
called La Salle. This was surrounded by a herd of cows, 
some of whom seemed interested in our party. It now 
began to rain fiercely, and except for my brother's perse- 
verance, I should certainly have given in. A fair path led 
up steep grass slopes into the clouds covering the Mont 
Bargy. Each of us had his umbrella raised, and the ascent 
was slippery and uninspiring. An hour took us to two 
deserted huts, the Alpe Montarquis, and half an hour 
beyond, we came to the caves ; by which time we were 
thoroughly soaked. 

The caves are on Mont Bargy, at the base of a lime- 
stone precipice, which, I think, faces nearly north. There 
are three caves close together. The lowest, or Petite 
Cave de Montarquis, Cotterlaz said is also called La Cave 
des Faux-Monayeurs ; as according to a, probably untrue, 
tradition, it was once used by counterfeiters. Above this 
is a small rock pocket, accessible down an easy slope. 
We went in and found that there was no ice and indeed 
scarcely any water in it. 

The Grand — not Grande — Cave is a little higher up, 



72 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

and as we came to it, several sheep, which had taken 
refuge in the mouth from the storm, hastily skipped away, 
evidently distrusting our intentions. The altitude of the 
cave is said to be 2078 meters. The entrance must face 
about north east; it is elliptical in shape, about fifteen 
meters wide, and six meters high, and is badly sheltered 
against the wind. The cave is of moderate size, about 
sixty meters in length and forty-five meters in width, and 
the average height of the roof is not over four or five 
meters. A gentle slope leads downwards. Many blocks 




Fig. 8. Vertical Section of Grand Cave de Montarquis. 

of rock in the front part had bits of moss growing on 
them, and some of the mud there was of a dull purple 
color, as if some dark madder was mixed with it. There 
was a red streak in the right hand wall, probably caused 
by iron. I observed no limestone stalactites nor stal- 
agmites in the cave, the main body of which was well 
lighted throughout by daylight. 

The ice was in the shape of a nearly level floor, about 
twelve meters long and eight meters wide : the shape 
was irregular, and the ice so smooth that it was hard 
to stand up. The rocks in the rear overhung the ice 



EXPERIENCES IN GLACIERES. 73 

floor at one spot ; and here, there streamed from a fis- 
sure to the ice floor an ice column, some three meters 
high, whose base was fully two meters distant from the 
rock wall. Near this column was a tiny ice cone, which 
evidently had been bigger. Cotterlaz seemed impressed 
with the fact that there was only one column in the 
cave, as he said that in June, there would have been 
many columns and a larger and deeper ice floor. The 
ice was sloppy in places, with several small hollows cut by 
the drip and containing water. In one place there was 
a tiny runnel filled with water, but there was no current. 
There was a good deal of drip all through the cave, and 
in fact in one or two places we might have kept on hold- 
ing up our umbrellas with advantage. I hacked at several 
pieces of ice, but none of it was prismatic. 

At the rear of the cave, the ice ran, in a tongue, up 
the entrance of an ascending fissure in the rocks. My 
brother cut here six or seven steps in the ice ; and he 
found them difficult to make, as the ice was hard and thin, 
and not in a melting state. Above the ice tongue we 
clambered up the rocks of the fissure some four or five 
meters further, finding there some lumps of ice which were 
not melting. At this spot we were almost in darkness. A 
lighted match burned steadily, so that there was evidently 
not much draught, but the smoke gradually descended, 
showing a slight downward current. This was the coldest, 
as well as the furthest point of the cave we could reach, 
and we there heard a tiny waterfall trickling within the 
fissure, although we could not see it. 



74 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

By this time we were all chilled to the bone, so, 
abandoning the idea of entering the Petite Cave, we re- 
treated down the sopping wet, slippery grass slopes to 
Pralong, and then immediately walked all the way to 
Closes to avoid taking cold. The Grand Cave was the 
most fatiguing trip I ever made after glacieres, but the 
circumstances were rather unusual. 



THE FREEZING WELL OF OWEGO. 

On Thursday, June 23d, 1898, I went to Owego, in 
Tioga County, New York. Inquiries at the Lehigh 
Valley railroad station and at the chief hotel failed to 
elicit any information about a freezing well ; and in fact, 
I soon found that the existence of such a thing was a 
blank to the rising generation. So I called on an old 
resident of Owego, who told me that he knew of the 
well in question and that it was filled up with stones 
many years ago ; but that he remembered that, when he 
was a boy, it used to freeze, and that it was spoken of as 
the deep well or freezing well. I then walked up to the 
site of the well, which is about one and a half kilometers 
to the northwest from the centre of Owego and about one 
kilometer from the Susquehanna River. It is directly in 
the middle of the highway, and nothing is now visible but 
a heap of stones. 

Near by was the house of a Mr. Preston, who told me 
he was born in 18 16, and had lived all his life at this spot. 
He said that the well was about twenty-eight meters deep, 



EXPERIENCES IN GLACIERES. 75 

and that it went first through a layer of sand and then 
through a layer of gravel. He had more than once been 
down the well and had seen the sides covered with ice. 
A bucket sent down for water would sometimes come up 
with ice on the sides. Whether the water at the bottom 
ever froze, no one knew, for the ice caked and filled up 
the bore at about two-thirds of the way down and became 
so thick, that as Mr. Preston put it, '' it was just like 
hammering on an anvil to try to break it.** He also 
stated that another well was dug about one hundred 
meters further down the road, and that originally this 
sometimes had a little ice on the sides. Of late years 
however, it was covered over with a wooden top and since 
then no ice was known to form. I could obtain no in- 
formation about any other wells in the neighborhood 
ever showing similar peculiarities. 

THE ICY GLEN, NEAR STOCKBRIDGE. 

The Icy Glen is situated on Bear Mountain, about 
one kilometer from Stockbridge, Massachusetts. It is in 
the midst of fine woods and there are many big trees in 
it. The bottom of the glen is full of rocks and boulders, 
among which there is a rough path. I was told that ice 
remained over there much longer than anywhere else in 
the neighborhood, sometimes as late as May. On the 3d 
of July, 1898, I not only found no traces of ice or snow, 
but the temperatures under the boulders showed nothing 
abnormal. To make up for this, however, there were 
legions of mosquitoes. 



76 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

FREEZING MARBLE CAVE, NEAR MANCHESTER. 

Near Manchester, Vermont, there is a little cave,^ 
which is noteworthy, in that it is in a marble formation. It 
is known as Skinner's Cave, because it was owned for 
many years by Mr. Mark Skinner. It lies in Skinner's 
Hollow, some five or six kilometers from the centre of 
Manchester, at the base of the eastern slope of Mount 
Equinox, of the Taghconic Range of the Green Moun- 
tains. 

The cave is on the property of Mr. N. M. Canfield, 
who, on learning the object of my visit, on the 5th of 
July, 1898, with true native American courtesy, walked 
up to it with me. The last two kilometers were over a 
rough logging road, which towards the end was steep 
and covered with many broken logs. I could not have 
found the cave alone, as it was so surrounded with 
bushes, that the entrance was invisible until we actually 
reached it. It is in a gorge of Mount Equinox, in the 
midst of a beautiful forest, which effectually cuts off any 
wind. The cave faces nearly north and can scarcely 
ever, if indeed at any time, be reached by the rays of the 
sun. The moment we got into the entrance, we found 
the chilly, damp, summer atmosphere of true glaciere 
caves. The rocks were brown and mossy on the out- 
side, but Mr. Canfield called my attention to the fact that 

* My attention was called to this cave, by Messrs. John Ritchie, Jr. , 
of Boston, and Byerly Hart of Philadelphia, who visited it some years 
ago. Mr. Ritchie' s opinion is that it is simply a refrigerator. 



EXPERIENCES IN GLACIERES. ^'] 

they were marble, and on his knocking off a small piece, 
a section of pure white marble was exposed. In no other 
instance have I heard of a marble cave in connection 
with ice. There were scarcely any cracks or crevices 
in the rock. 

The cave goes down with a steep slope from the 
entrance, much in the shape of a tunnel, for some ten 
meters. The slope was covered with slippery mud and 
decayed leaves, and at the bottom expanded into a little 
chamber, in which lay a mass of wet, compact snow, some 
two by three meters. It was evident that the snow was 
simply drifted in during the winter, and was in too large 
a mass and too well protected to melt easily, and there 
could be no question but that this place was purely a 
refrigerator. The air was tranquil throughout and there 
were no draughts. On the same day, a good breeze was 
blowing in the Manchester Valley. 

THE FREEZING WELL OF BRANDON. 

The Freezing Well of Brandon is situated on the 
western or southwestern outskirts of the village of 
Brandon, Vermont, not far from the railroad station. I 
visited it on the 7th of July, 1898. The well was pro- 
tected by a wooden cover. On raising this, a faint stream 
of cool air seemed to issue forth ; but this was probably 
only imagination. The sides, as far down as one could 
see, were built in with rather large blocks of stone with- 
out cement. At the bottom water was visible and there 
were no signs of ice. We drew up some water in a 



78 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

bucket, and although it was cool there was nothing icy 
about it. I twice lowered a thermometer nearly to the 
water and each time after ten minutes it registered only 
13° C. There was certainly nothing abnormal in this 
temperature, in fact it was strictly normal and my ther- 
mometer showed conclusively by its actions that it could 
not have been near any ice mass. The people at the 
house, however, assured me that a month before there 
was ice in the well. 

Afterw^ards I called on Mr. C. O. Luce, the owner of 
the well. He stated that it was eleven and a half meters 
deep to the bottom, that it was dug in 1858, and that the 
ground through which it goes was found frozen at a depth 
of about four and a half meters. Here there is a stratum 
of gravel and this is where the freezing occurs. Mr. 
Luce thought that the water was under the ice, that is, 
that the water came up from the bottom. He said also 
that the well usually froze solid in winter; but, that as 
this winter was an open one, there was less ice this year 
than usual. He thought that there was less ice anyway 
now than in former years, partly because of the cover 
which was put over the well, and which keeps out some 
of the cold ; and partly because a neighboring gravel 
hillock, called the Hogback, was a good deal cut away, 
and this in some way affects the supply of cold in the 
gravel. He added that the sandy soil round Brandon 
does not as a rule freeze to a greater depth than two 
meters each winter. The house built beside the well was 
said to be comfortable in winter. 



EXPERIENCES IN GLACIERES. 79 

There seems no doubt that this is another refrigerator. 
The cold water of the winter snows percolates into the 
gravel mass and refreezes, and, owing to the bad conduct- 
ive quality of the material, the gravel remains frozen later 
than the soil elsewhere in the neighborhood. The fact that 
the well went through a frozen gravel stratum when dug, 
proves that it is not alone the air that sinks into the well 
itself, which makes the ice. The fact that the well freezes 
on the whole less than formerly, apparently partly owing 
to the digging up of some of the gravel close by, goes to 
prove the same thing. The fact that the well generally 
freezes solid every winter, shows that although some of 
the gravel mass possibly remains frozen all the time, 
much of the ice is renewed each year. This is especially 
important as proving that the ice found in gravel deposits 
is due to the cold of winter and not to a glacial period, 
although, of course, no one could say for how long a time 
the ice was forming and melting ; and this process might 
date back to the time of the formation of the gravel mass. 

I could learn nothing of any similar place near Bran- 
don, except that Mr. Luce said that in an old abandoned 
silver mine in the neighborhood, he had once seen ice 
during hot weather. 

FREEZING TALUS ON LOWER AUSABLE POND. 

On the eastern side of Lower Ausable Pond, Essex 
County, New York, at the foot of Mount Sebille or Col- 
vin, there is a talus of great Laurentian boulders, which 
fell from the mountain and lie piled up on the edge of the 



8o GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

lake. Among these boulders, at a distance of about five 
hundred meters from the southern end of the lake, there 
are spaces, several of which might be called caves, 
although they are really hollows between the boulders. 
On the 1 2th of July, 1898, I visited this spot with Mr. 
Edward I. H. Howell of Philadelphia. From several of 
the rock cracks we found a draught of air flowing strongly 
out, as tested by the smoke of a cigar. The air was 
distinctly icy and there could be no question that there 
was a considerable quantity of ice among the rocks to 
produce the temperature. 

In three places we found masses of ice. One of these 
hollows was small, and the other two were much larger. 
One of the latter was almost round in shape, and per- 
haps three meters in diameter; with a little snow near 
the mouth and with plenty of ice at the bottom. The 
other was a long descending crack between two boulders 
which joined overhead, and with the bottom filled by a 
long, narrow slope of ice, perhaps seventy-five centimeters 
in width and six meters in length, set at an angle of 
about thirty-five degrees. The ice was hard and non- 
prismatic. 

The cold air affects a large area of land around the 
boulders. Mr. Howell called my attention to the flowers 
of the bunch-berry, which he said were at least two weeks 
behind those on the surrounding mountains. The same 
was true of oxalis, a pretty white flower, of which we found 
several beds in full bloom. 

Mr. Howell went to this talus, on the 4th of July 



EXPERIENCES IN GLACIERES. 8 1 

previous, with Mr. Niles, President of the Appalachian 
Mountain Club, on which occasion they found plenty of 
snow near the entrance of the larger hollow. Mr. Howell, 
indeed, has repeatedly visited this place, and always found 
ice, which must, therefore, be looked on as perennial. 
At all times also he has felt cold draughts flowing out ; 
sometimes they were so strong as to lower the temper- 
ature over the lake to a distance of thirty meters or 
more : on hot days he has seen occasionally a misty cloud 
form on the lake in front of the boulders. Mr. Howell 
considers that the draughts so affect the surrounding air, 
that an artificial climate is produced, and it is owing to 
this that spring flowers bloom late in July and sometimes 
in August. Another fact well known to him, is that in hot 
weather, the spot in front of the boulders is the best in the 
whole lake to catch trout, as they always congregate in the 
coldest water. The Adirondack guides use these ice retain- 
ing hollows, which they call ice-caves, as refrigerators for 
their provisions and game in hot weather : they say that 
the ice is formed in winter and remains over during the 
summer, as it is so well sheltered. 

FREEZING TALUS OF THE GIANT OF THE VALLEY. 

On the indications of Mr. Otis, chief guide of the Adi- 
rondack Reserve, I explored with Mr. C. Lamb, a guide 
from Keene Valley, the southern base of the Giant of 
the Valley Mountain, Essex County, New York, on the 
14th of July, 1898. A road runs from Keene Heights 
to Port Henry, through the gap between the south base 



82 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

of the Giant of the Valley and the north base of Round 
Mountain, and passes close to a small lake called Chapel 
Pond. Some three hundred meters west of this lake, 
we left the road and struck north, across the brook, into 
the thick, mossy woods. After perhaps one hundred 
meters, we came to a talus of great boulders of Laurentian 
rock, with the cliffs of the Giant, whence the boulders had 
fallen, rising steeply above. We found ice under several 
of them, although never in any quantity. The ther- 
mometer, after an exposure of fifteen minutes in one of 
these little hollows, registered 6° C., although not more 
than one meter from where the sunshine fell on the moss. 
In the shade of a tree one meter distant from the same 
hollow it registered 26° C. ; a difference of 20° C. at a 
distance of only two meters. 

Perhaps one kilometer east of Chapel Pond, there is a 
place, where the bases of the mountains come much nearer 
together, which bears the name of ''The Narrows." Here 
we crossed the brook again, and, after some fifteen or 
twenty meters of scrambling through rough woods, reached 
once more the talus of the Giant, composed of tremendous 
boulders. Among these we found ice in many places and 
this time in large quantities. Within one boulder cave we 
found an ice slab some four meters in length, by two 
meters in width, and one meter in thickness. This was 
pure, hard and non-prismatic ice, and was evidently not 
formed of compressed snow : in fact snow could not have 
drifted in under the boulder. We broke off a large piece 
of ice and took it back to Saint Hubert's Inn, and it 



EXPERIENCES IN GLACIERES. S^ 

melted rather slowly. From the mouth of this cave an 
icy draught issued, and, as it struck the warmer air out- 
side, a slight mist was formed. Mr. Lamb said that from 
the road itself he had sometimes seen mist rising from 
this talus. Further explorations of the talus of the 
Giant would probably reveal ice in many other places 
than those we examined.'^ 

Mr. Lamb told me of two other places in the Adiron- 
dacks, where he found ice in similar boulder formations. 
One was in the talus of Mount Wallface in Indian Pass, 
between Mounts Wallface and Mclntyre. The other was 
in the talus of Mount Mclntyre in Avalanche Pass, between 
Mounts Mclntyre and Golden. At the latter place, he 
found it near the trail going round the lake in the pass. 

THE ICE GULCH, RANDOLPH. 

The Randolph Ice Gulch is situated in Randolph 
Township, New Hampshire, about eight kilometers from 
Randolph Station, on the Boston and Maine Railroad.* I 
visited it on August nth, 1898. At the Mount Crescent 
House, I found a guide in the person of Mr. Gharles E. 

^ Mr. E. I. H. Howell examined several times, in 1899, the talus 
of the Giant of the Valley. He found ice in many places ; also cold air 
currents blowing out. At one spot, there is a spring which flows all 
through the summer, and the water is so cold, that its temperature is 
little above that of melting ice. Mr. Howell found, as at Ausable 
Pond, spring flowers growing in mid-summer among the rocks of the 
talus. 

^ I first heard of the Ice Gulch from Mr. John Ritchie, Jr. , of Bos- 
ton. Some years ago in the middle of July, he found ice plentiful in 
the second chamber. He thought the Gulch only a refrigerator. 



84 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

Lowe, Jr. The excursion took us about six hours. The 
trail was a rough bush path, cut by the Appalachian 
Mountain Club, and which had not been cleaned out that 
year. It was a cloudy but hot day and this, combined 
with the badness of the road, made the walk fatiguing. 
The Gulch lies between Crescent and Black Moun- 
tains. The altitude of the upper end of the Gulch is 
something over eight hundred meters, that of the lower 
end about six hundred meters. It is some fifteen hun- 
dred meters long, and averages perhaps one hundred 
meters in width at the top, and only a few meters at the 
bottom. The depth may be about seventy-five meters and 
the sides are steep, in some places sheer. The bottom is 
a mass of broken, fallen rocks, with a good many trees 
growing among them. There are several steps, so to 
speak, in the Gulch, which are called chambers, although 
the term seems rather meaningless. Promenading through 
the bottom of the Gulch was fraught with difficulty, be- 
cause the rocks were placed in most unsuitable positions 
for human progression, and my hands were certainly as 
useful to me as my feet in preserving equilibrium. We 
found ice in one or two places, but not in any great 
quantity. In one spot it was overlaid by water. My 
guide said that there was less ice than the year before. 
A large piece which we broke off, and which furnished us 
with a cooling morsel of frozen fluid, was full of air 
bubbles. It was not prismatic ice, and was certainly un- 
usual in formation. It crunched up under the teeth and, 
although it did not look like solidified snow, yet, judging 



EXPERIENCES IN GLACIERES. 85 

from its position among the boulders, it was doubtless 
formed from the melting and refreezing of snow.^ My 
guide said he had heard that fresh ice began to form 
sometimes in September. The Gulch is well protected 
against wind, and I detected no draughts among the 
rocks. Except in the immediate vicinity of the ice, the 
temperature was not abnormally low. 

On returning to the Mount Crescent House, I had a 
talk with Mr. Charles E. Lowe, Sr., who told me that 
Alpine plants, like those which grow on Mount Washing- 
ton and Mount Adams, are found in the Gulch ; but that 
they do not exist on the neighboring Black and Crescent 
Mountains. He said also that ice was present in more 
than one place in King's Ravine, and that it was always 
there. 

FREEZING BOULDER TALUS AT RUMNEY. 

About three kilometers south of Rumney, New Hamp- 
shire, there is a hill called Bald Mountain, which, about 
three hundred meters west of the carriage road from 
Rumney to Plymouth, descends as a big cliff, with an 
exposure facing nearly southeast. At the base of this 
cliff, there is a talus ^° which I visited on the 27th of 

^ On the 17th of February, 1899, four days after the greatest snow 
storm in Philadelphia in many years, I noticed that the snow on my 
roof solidified slowly into a mass of ice which contained a good many 
air-bubbles. It strikingly resembled the ice of the Ice Gulch, only that 
it was more solid and did not have more than half as many air-bubbles. 

^*^ Mr. John Ritchie, Jr. , wrote me about this place, where he had 
found ice plentiful some years ago in August, within two or three 
meters from the outside : he considered it only a refrigerator. 



86 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

August, 1898, with the Sheriff of Rumney, Mr. Learned. 
He said he had found plenty of ice there on the i8th of 
August, 1897, but he doubted whether there would be 
any left this year, on account of the hot weather. Effect- 
ively a careful hunt failed to reveal any ice, although the 
talus was just the kind of place where it might have been 
expected, as the boulders were piled one over the other 
and in one or two places there were considerable hol- 
lows. The temperatures were normal, and there were 
no draughts. The talus is exposed to the sun, and only 
moderately sheltered against wind by a scrub forest. But 
there can be no doubt, that ice lingers there long after it 
has disappeared from every other spot in the neighbor- 
hood, and it seems as if our not finding any, is another 
proof that it is the heat of summer which melts it away. 

ICE FORMATIONS AND WINDHOLES AT WATERTOWN. 

At Watertown, New York, on the south side of the 
Black River, in the town itself, are some natural cracks or 
crevices in the limestone rocks. They are only a short 
distance from the New York Central Railroad station. 
The cracks enter the northern side of the railroad embank- 
ment, pass under the railroad tracks, and extend some 
distance back. In front of them are four cellars, used for 
storing beer kegs. The lessor, Mr. Ehrlicher, obligingly 
had the cellars opened for me, on the 12th of Septem- 
ber, 1898. There was neither ice nor draughts in the 
cellars, and the temperature was normal. Mr. Ehr- 
licher said that in the spring there was ice in the 



EXPERIENCES IN GLACIl^RES. 87 

cracks, but that it had all melted away as the result of 
the hot summer. 

About four kilometers west of Watertown, on the 
south bank of the Black River, is the picnic ground of Glen 
Park, which is reached by trolley. The manager of the 
restaurant walked around the park with me. In one 
spot is a hollow or glen at the base of a small, much 
cracked limestone cliff, which has a northern exposure. 
The manager said that snow and ice usually lies in this 
place until June, not only among the broken rocks, but 
even in the open. Sometimes ice remains among the 
boulders all summer, but only near the front of the 
boulders, and by pushing in, one soon gets beyond it : 
we found none, a fact showing once more the effect of 
the unusually warm summer. On hot days, draughts 
issue from between the boulders, but as the day was 
cool, we did not notice any. The spot is well sheltered 
against the wind by a number of trees ; and the shape 
of the hollow reminded me of the glen in front of the 
Eishohle bei Roth. 

Not one hundred meters from this hollow, is a little 
limestone cave, closed by a wooden door, which excludes 
any cold air in winter. The cave is lighted by electric 
lights, and is a narrow, crooked, descending fissure, ?igang- 
hohle, where the marks of water action are plainly visible. 
At the bottom a little stream, evidently the active agent in 
forming the cave, ran through the fissured limestone. In 
the stream a large toad or frog was swimming about. 
There was nothing icy about the cave or the water, and the 



88 GLACI^RES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

temperature was normal. Ice was never known to form 
in the cave. These two places, so close together, are an 
interesting confirmation that it is only where the outside 
cold can get in, that we find subterranean ice. 

THE FREEZING CAVE AND FREEZING WELLS OF DECORAH. 

Near Decorah, Iowa, is a freezing cavern, which is 
more frequently referred to in cave literature than is gen- 
erally the case. I visited it on Friday, September the 30th, 
1898, with an old English resident of Decorah, Mr. W. D. 
Selby-Hill. The cave is situated about one kilometer to 
the northward of Decorah, on the north bank of the 
Upper Iowa River, at the base of a bluff. It is some 
thirty to forty meters above the stream, and faces south- 
ward. It looks like a fault or fissure in the rocks, with 
the sides meeting a few meters overhead. It is a true 
cave, but probably in an early stage of formation, for 
there are no apparent traces of water action, nor any 
stalagmites nor stalactites. The absence of the latter 
may, however, be due to the fact that it is a periodic 
glaciere. The rock is a white limestone, rich in fossils. 
The cave is some two to three meters in width and is 
rather winding, with a short arm or pocket branching 
out on the west side. The main cave runs back some 
thirty meters from the entrance. In one place it is 
necessary to stoop, to get past some overhanging rock 
slabs. By candle light, we went to the rear of the cave, 
and found it warm, dry, and free from ice. There were 
no draughts, possibly because the day was cool. 







ENTRANCE OF THE CAVE OF DECORAH. 

From a Photograph by Mr. A. F. Kovarik. 



EXPERIENCES IN GLACIERES. 89 

I looked in vain for tubular fissures^ or indeed any 
fissures, through which water might freeze by pressure in 
its descent, as the believers in the capillary theory say it 
does. Nothing of the kind existed, and I wrote in my 
note-book: ''Writing on the very spot about which this 
theory was started, I feel justified in asserting that the 
theory amounts to absolutely nothing and is entirely in- 
correct." 

Mr. Hill told me that there were two wells in the 
southern portion of Decorah Township, where ice was 
found in summer. I visited them both, but found no ice, 
and the temperatures normal. Mr. Hill said that one of 
the wells was dug about thirty years ago, and that the 
workman told him that the ground which he went through 
was frozen ; and that at one place he struck an opening, 
from which came so strong a current of icy air, that it was 
hard to keep at work. 

I talked to several persons afterwards. Inter alia, they 
told me that the bluff was a great place for rattlesnakes, 
sometimes big ones. They admitted also generally that 
they were puzzled about the formation of ice in the cave. 
Some claimed that the ice formed in summer — the old 
story once more. I met, however, Mr. Alois F. Kovarik 
of the Decorah Institute, who had made a series of regular 
observations for over a year and found that the ice begins 
to form about the end of March and beginning of April, 
and is at its maximum towards the beginning of June. 
Mr. Kovarik also told me, that he had found ice in one 
of the wells in the beginning of August. 



90 GLACI^RES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

This was an especially satisfactory trip to me, for it 
did away, once for all, with any possible belief that there 
was any basis of fact for the capillary theory. It also 
seems to me important to find that the ice of these 
freezing wells melts in summer. For it shows that their 
ice is due to the same causes as those which form the ice 
in the cave, and is another proof against the validity of 
the glacial period theory. 

FREEZING ROCK TALUS ON SPRUCE CREEK. 

On spruce Creek, Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania, 
about four kilometers north of the Pennsylvania Railroad 
depot, is an ice bearing talus, known locally as the Ice 
Holes or Ice Caves. I visited this spot, on October the 
5th, 1898, with Mr. Benner, of Spruce Creek. We 
walked up the pretty valley along the old Pittsburgh 
turnpike, at one place finding some papaw trees, whose 
fruit had a horrible sickening taste ; then we crossed 
Spruce Creek by a footbridge and followed the other bank 
back for some five hundred meters, until we were nearly 
opposite the old Colerain Forge, which is located in a 
piece of land called by the curious name of Africa. 
About half way from the bridge we smelt a strange 
odor, which my companion thought came from a copper- 
head or rattlesnake : we did not investigate. 

The freezing talus is situated at the foot of Tussey 
Mountain : it is big, and is composed of small sand- 
stone (?) rock debris. The talus is at least thirty meters 
high and one hundred and twenty meters long. As I 



EXPERIENCES IN GLACIERES. 9 1 

stood at the bottom, I was reminded strongly of the talus 
at the Dornburg. At the base were a number of small 
pits, evidently dug by man. From the interstices be- 
tween the rocks, icy cold draughts issued in some places, 
and there was no doubt that there was plenty of ice 
beneath the stones. In one place we thought we could 
see ice, and I poked at the white substance with my stick, 
but I am not positive that it was ice. All over the talus, 
the temperature was strikingly colder than a few meters 
away, and in the pits we could see our breaths distinctly. 
Although I am not much of a botanist, yet it seemed to 
me that the flora immediately near the talus was some- 
what different in character from that of the surrounding 
country. 

Mr. Benner told me that he saw, three or four weeks 
before, plenty of ice in the pits ; that they were made by 
farmers who formerly came to this spot to get ice ; and 
that parties occasionally picnic here in the summer and 
make ice cream. He stated also that he saw, some years 
ago, a small cave or hole containing ice near Mapleton, 
Pennsylvania, but that it was destroyed by quarrying the 
rock away. 

FREEZING GORGE NEAR ELLENVILLE. 

On Sunday, October the 9th, 1898, with a young man 
from Ellenville, I visited the well known Ellenville Gorge, 
in the Shawangunk Range, Ulster County, New York. 
We left the hotel at eight-forty A. M. and reached the 
gorge, known locally as the Ice Cave, at ten-five A. M. 



92 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

It is about four kilometers northeast from Ellenville. The 
path rises steadily uphill and is of the roughest descrip- 
tion; it is covered with loose stones, and looks as if it 
mieht become the bed of a mountain brook in wet 
weather. 

I call this place a gorge, instead of a cave, because it is 
uncovered at the top, but probably originally it was 
covered. It is shaped like a pit cave minus a roof, and 
it reminded me of the Friedrichsteiner Eishohle, and the 
Glacieres de Saint-Georges and du Pre de Saint-Livres. 
It is entered by a long slope from the western end, the 
gorge turning northward further back. I estimated its 
width, at the bottom at some five to seven meters, at the 
top at some three to four meters ; its length at some thirty 
meters and the deepest point we reached, at some twenty 
meters below the surface. These are guesses, however. 
In one place, a great rock slab overhangs the gorge. 
At nearly the lowest point of the rock floor, there is 
a hole which extends perpendicularly downwards some 
five or ten meters more ; this opening is partly blocked 
up with fallen masses of rock which would make a further 
descent perilous. The north end of the gorge is also filled 
up with a mass of great broken rocks ; in fact, the whole 
place is out of repair, as the rocks are cracked and creviced 
on both sides to a great extent. The rock is friable and 
seems to be all breaking up, or rather down, and I think 
there is some danger from falling stones, although I did 
not see any fall. There is a good deal of moss on the sides 
of the gorge, and on some ledges small evergreens are 




GORGE AT ELLENVILLE. 

From a Photograph by Mr. Davis. 



EXPERIENCES IN GLACI^RES. 93 

growing. The gorge is sheltered thoroughly from winds 
by its formation and position, and somewhat by the 
scrub forest surrounding it. There are several long, 
deep crevices a few meters further up the mountain 
side, and I think one of them is an extension of the 
main gorge. 

We found no ice. It generally lasts till about the 
beginning of September ; and Professor Angelo Heilprin, 
and Miss Julia L. Lewis, of Philadelphia, have found 
plenty of it in July and August. But the ice had evi- 
dently now been gone for some time, for the tempera- 
ture at the bottom of the gorge was about ii® C. at 
ten-thirty A. M. This was but little colder than the 
temperature outside, which at ten-fifteen A. M. was 
14° C. 

On returning to Ellenville, I learnt that there was 
another somewhat similar smaller gorge, some eight kilo- 
meters away, at a place called Sam's Point. This, however, 
is said to retain only snow, while in the Ellenville gorge 
much ice is sometimes formed, and icicles a couple of 
meters long are said to hang on the sides of the cliffs. 
The proprietor of the hotel told me he had heard of a cave 
which contained ice not far from Albany, at a place called 
Carlisle, on the Delaware and Hudson Railroad. 

FREEZING CAVE AND WINDHOLES NEAR FARRANDSVILLE. 

I arrived at Farrandsville, Clinton County, Pennsyl- 
vania, early on Tuesday morning, October the nth, 1898, 
and found a boy, who worked in a brick mill, as guide to 



94 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

the caves.^^ After emptying a small, flat bottomed boat 
of the water of which it was half full, we rowed across 
the Susquehanna River ; then we walked up the road, 
along the river bank, for a couple of hundred meters, and 
struck up the so-called path to the caves. Although the 
whole of the mountain side was at the disposal of the road 
maker, no better plan seems to have suggested itself than 
to make the track go straight up. This saved making 
zigzags, yet the result is that the path is steep, and as 
it is rocky and slippery, it is hard travelling without 
bootnails or alpenstock. 

As we went up, I noticed, in one or two places, cold 
draughts issuing from crevices in the rocks. We soon 
came to a hollow under a rock, where there were a number 
of cracks and crevices : the boy spoke of it as the lower 
cave. It is some sixty meters above the Susquehanna 
River and cold draughts flowed from the cracks, although 
we saw no ice. The cave was about twenty meters 

" I learned of this cave from Mr. Eugene F. McCabe, of Renovo, 
Pennsylvania. Mr. McCabe took out large pieces of ice from it in 
the month of August. On December 23d, 1896, he found no ice 
inside the cave, but a hoar frost covered the rocks ; the temperature 
outside was — 5.6° ; inside — 4.5° : the day was clear and there was no 
breeze ; several matches lighted in the cave were almost instantly- 
blown out by a current of air coming from crevices in the rocks. 

Mr. Ira C. Chatham, postmaster at Farrandsville, wrote to me on the 
19th of October, 1898, as follows : ^' Your paper on Ice Caves 
[Journal of the Franklin Institute, March, 1897] at pp. 177 and 178 
describes the Farrandsville Cave as near as is possible, as the ice 
forms in the spring from the snow melting and dropping through the 
rocks into the cave, and the rocks face directly north as stated." 



EXPERIENCES IN GLACIERES. 95 

higher up. One could crawl into it for a couple of me- 
ters, and all round it the rocks are somewhat creviced ; 
in fact, I think there are a good many cracks in the entire 
hill. There was no ice in sight in this hole, but a strong, 
cold draught poured from it. After an exposure of fifteen 
minutes the thermometer registered 6° C. ; while outside, 
in the shade, it stood at 15° C. This decidedly sub-nor- 
mal temperature proved unmistakably, in my opinion, the 
presence of ice a little further than we could see in. 
Both holes face about north and are sheltered, by their 
position and by the sparse forest which covers the ridge, 
against all winds except those from the north. 

I talked to the postmaster and the railroad agent at 
Farrandsville on my return, and they stated that there 
was no ice in the hole in winter, but that it formed 
about April and remained over until towards Septem- 
ber, showing that the cave is a normal glaciere on a 
small scale. 

GLACIERES NEAR SUMMIT. 

In the search for coal, the mountains of the Appa- 
lachian Chain between the little town of Summit, and the 
neighboring village of Coal dale. Carbon County, Pennsyl- 
vania, were mined and tunneled in every direction. Owing 
to the caving in of some of these mines, depressions 
formed in certain places along the ridge in the upper sur- 
face of the ground, and in two of these hollows natural 
refrigerators occur. These were brought to my notice by 
Mr. C. J. Nicholson of Philadelphia, and I visited them on 



96 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

I^Iay the 5th, 1899, in company with two coal miners of 
Summit. 

Starting from Summit, we passed across some rough 
ground under which there was a mine on fire ; and the 
miners showed me the tops of two pipes sticking out of 
the ground,, from which issued a smoke or steam, too hot 
to hold the hand in more than a few seconds. Going 
beyond through brushwood, for a couple of hundred 
meters, we came to the first glaciere, which was also the 
nearest to Summit. It faced almost due north and looked 
as if it was formerly the entrance to a mine. It was fairly 
big, and my companions assured me that, until ^^ithin 
about a year, ice was always found in it. Recently, how- 
ever, part of the rock roof fell in, blocking up the entrance 
with a mass of debris and making it unsafe to venture in. 
Formerly parties of tourists constantly visited this place, 
after coming over the Switchback, but this is no longer 
done and there has been some talk of cleaning away the 
broken rocks and making the glaciere accessible. The 
men also said that occasionally people living in the 
neiofhborhood had dus: out the ice for their own use. 

The other glaciere was a short distance further, in the 
direction of Coaldale. It is in a pit, which may have 
been the mouth of a disused shaft or only a depression 
resultins: from a cave-in. A scrubbv forest, which sur- 
rounds the hollow, acts as a windbrake. A rather steep 
slope leads down into the pit, and at the end passes 
under the wall of rock of the opposite side for a short 
distance, forming a small cave, which faces almost due 



EXPERIENCES IN GLACIERES. 



97 



south and whose floor is choked up with broken rock 
fragments. At the bottom of the slope we found some 
snow, and among the boulders a good deal of snow-ice as 
well as several long icicles hanging from the rocks. All 
the ice and snow lay on the north side of the rocks, or 




Fig. 9. Vertical Section of Pit near Summit. 



underneath them, so that it was in shady places where the 
sun could not reach it. The temperature was not at all 
uncomfortable, although somewhat cool and damp. 

There was nothing in either glaciere, to show that the 
ice was formed from any other cause than the drifting in, 
and melting and refreezing of the winter's snow; and my 



98 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

impression is that the ice in the second glaciere could 
not last through the summer. 

THE SNOW HOLE NEAR WILLIAMSTOWN. 

The Snow Hole near Williamstown (Massachusetts) is 
situated near the northern end of the Petersburgh Moun- 
tain of the Taghconic Range ; it is slightly below the water- 
shed on the Williamstown side, at an altitude of about 
seven hundred meters. The Snow Hole is in the State of 
New York, near the boundary between New York and 
Massachusetts. It is a long two hours' drive from Will- 
iamstown, the last four kilometers or so, over an exceed- 
ingly steep and rough road, which is, in fact, nothing but 
an old logging road, and the worst I ever drove over 
except the road to Demenyfalva. 

I visited the Snow Hole with my brother on Friday, 
September the 29th, 1899. It is surrounded by a dense 
forest, mainly of recent growth, which thoroughly shelters 
it from all winds. In shape and appearance it resembles 
the Gorge at EUenville, except that it is smaller : its lo- 
cation on the ridge is not unlike that of the Friedrich- 
steiner Eishohle. It is a narrow crack — or cave minus a 
roof — about fifteen meters long, six to seven meters 
deep and from two to five meters wide. It faces nearly 
north, and the bottom is in perpetual shadow. From 
the northern end, a gentle slope leads to the rear. The 
slope was a good deal blocked up by a big tree with 
large branches, which had fallen directly into the fissure. 
There was some moss or greenish mould on the rocks in 



EXPERIENCES IN GLACIERES. 99 

places, and at the rear end of the slope there were some 
fissures in the rocks, into which one might perhaps have 
crawled a little farther, which formed a tiny cave. There 
was also a similar incipient cave at the northern end. 
I could not detect any draughts issuing from these rock 
fissures, and the air throughout was still, although the 
wind was blowing hard on the ridge. The rocks were 
moist in places and the air damp, but there was neither 
snow nor ice and the temperatures were normal. The 
driver told me that he had found plenty of snow in the 
base of the gorge some years ago in July ; and he 
said that he had always heard that snow was found 
in the Snow Hole all the year round. All the condi- 
tions of the place, the shape of the fissure, and its 
sheltered northern exposition, are favorable to the re- 
tention of ice and snow, and it is not surprising that 
they remain over every spring. 

ICY GULF NEAR GREAT BARRINGTON. 

The Icy Gulf or Icy Glen is some eight kilometers 
from Great Barrington, Massachusetts. I have not been 
in it, but was told in October, 1899, by the farmers living 
near by, that after snowy winters, ice remains over 
through July. It must be similar to the Icy Glen at 
Stockbridge. 

THE ICE BED OF WALLINGFORD. 

The Ice Bed of Wallingford is situated about three 
kilometers to the east of Wallingford, Vermont. A drive 
of half an hour, over the Mount Holly and Hearburrow 



lOO GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

roads, takes the visitor to the entrance of a rough wood 
path, which, at a distance of three or four hundred meters, 
leads to the Ice Bed. This is a huge talus, at the base of 
the White Rock Mountain, whose cliffs rise steeply over- 
head for some three or four hundred meters. The talus, 
which w^as doubtless formed by a great slide at some 
distant date, consists of granite boulders, some of which 
are big ones. The ice-bearing portion may be some 
thirty or forty meters high vertically. It lies in a sort of 
gully or rock basin, and at the top is about thirty meters 
broad, tapering to a point at the bottom. The talus faces 
southward, and during a good part of the day the sun 
shines full upon it. A thin forest fringes the sides and 
grows round the bottom, but this can afford but little 
protection from the winds, especially to those from the 
south. 

I visited this place on the 5th of October, 1899. There 
was a distinct drop in temperature as we neared the base 
of the talus, and a cool air drew gently down over the 
rocks. I think slight draughts issued from some of the 
crevices ; but of this I am not sure. The temperature was 
sub-normal, about 8°, but hardly low enough to prove the 
presence of ice, although we could see our breaths dis- 
tinctly. We looked carefully under a number of the 
boulders, but neither ice nor snow was visible. I was 
assured that ice was abundant there in the past July 
and August, and I should think it had melted away only 
shortly before my visit. My impression is, that this is a 
periodic glaciere. 



EXPERIENCES IN GLACIERES. lOI 

CAVES NEAR WILLIAMSTOWN. 

On the eastern slope of the Petersburgh Mountain of 
the Taghconic Range in Massachusetts, at a good deal 
lower altitude than the Williamstown Snow Hole and 
about southeast of it are some caverns, which are but 
little known. A five or six kilometer drive from Williams- 
town takes the visitor to the base of the mountain, whence 
a rather steep ascent of about a kilometer and a half 
brings him to the caves, which are in the midst of a dense, 
scrub forest. 

The caves were first entered, and possibly discovered, 
by Mr. W. F. Williams, of Williamstown, when a boy. 
Since then, he has visited them many times and explored 
them a good deal. They do not appear to have any name 
as yet, and it would seem only fitting to christen them 
after their explorer : the Williams Caves. 

There are several unimportant holes in the immediate 
neighborhood of the two main caves. The latter lie side 
by side. The rock formation is the same as that of the 
Snow Hole, a dark gray slate with a few veins of quartz, 
and they are due also evidently to the same geological 
causes. It would seem as though the mountain had 
tended to open or crack at these spots and fallen apart. 
This seems probable, because wherever there is a pro- 
jection on one side of the cracks, there is a correspond- 
ing hollow in the opposite side. After this, water action 
has come, and erosion and corrosion have worn out and 
carried away earthy matter, and slowly deepened and 



I02 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

widened the fissures. The remarkable point in con- 
nection with the main caves, however, is that one is a 
normal cave and the other a periodic glaciere. 

I went with Mr. Williams to these caves on the 6th 
of October, 1899, ^^^ partially explored the glaciere. 
On the way up, just as we left the carriage road, a fine, 
three-year-old buck, in his winter coat, came bounding out 
of the forest ; on seeing us he stopped, and after taking 
a good look, quietly trotted off into the bushes. 

The glaciere is rather peculiar in shape and may be 
described as two storied. A long slope, set at an angle 
of some forty degrees, and covered with mud and dead 
leaves, leads down into the crack, which is from one to 
three meters in width. The first half of the slope is open 
to the sky ; the last half is covered by the rock roof, 
and is a real cave. In this the floor is horizontal, the 
place forming a little chamber in which the daylight has 
almost vanished. At the exact summit of the slope a big 
tree grew most conveniently ; and we tied to this one 
end of a twenty-meter Austrian Alpine Club rope, and 
by holding fast to it, and kneeling or sitting down in the 
mud in two or three places, the descent was easy enough. 
It was rather difficult to scramble up the slope again, 
however. 

In the floor of the little chamber there are two holes, 
and, stepping over these, we stood at the rear end, about 
eighteen meters distant from the beginning of the slope. 
My companion now set some birchbark on fire and 
dropped it into the innermost hole, and we laid down in 



EXPERIENCES IN GLACIERES. 



103 



turn, flat on the rock floor, and craned our necks through 
the hole. Mr. Williams thought he could see ice below 
us. I looked down after him and found that I was look- 
ing into a lower chamber whose sides were invisible. 
The floor was some three meters below vertically, and on 
this the birchbark was burning brightly. I think I saw 



raHfimTlmTTTr- 





Fig. 10. Vertical Section of Freezing Cave near Williamstown. 



some ice, but I could not be sure, as there was too much 
smoke to see distinctly. My companion offered to go 
down through the hole and get some ice ; a proposition I 
promptly vetoed, as had anything gone wrong, I could 
not possibly have given him any assistance, as there was 
no extra rope. Mr. Williams told me that he went down 
several times before in July or August, and always found 



I04 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

ice on the slanting floor. He said he did not know how- 
far this lower chamber extended, nor the length of the 
ice floor. One thing which makes me hesitate to think 
that we saw ice was, that the temperature of the chamber 
where we were was not at all icy ; but probably— I had 
forgotten my thermometer — nearly normal. 

When we stood once more by the tree at the top of 
the slope, the mouth of another cave was visible about 
two meters below us. Mr. Williams said it had never 
looked more than a little crack before, and that the open- 
ing was much bigger than at his last visit. It was directly 
under the slope by which we descended and it vanished 
into darkness. Its direction led straight towards the 
lower chamber, and it almost surely leads to it. It seems 
thus that there are two hollows, one directly above the 
other; and that the lower one is a glaciere, while the 
upper one is not. The cold air of winter would naturally 
sink into the lower chamber, and the spring thaws would 
furnish plenty of drip, so that this place seems to answer 
every requirement of a cave glaciere. 

But the most interesting fact about these caves is 
that, while the shallower one is a glaciere, the bigger 
and deeper one is not. This is situated about ten meters 
north of the glaciere and the direction of the entrance 
is about the same. Mr. Williams has found snow and 
ice in May in the entrance pit as far as the daylight 
goes, but none beyond. I am inclined to think that the 
explanation of this is the fact that the cave is a gang- 
hohle or tunnel cave. Mr. Williams described it as a 



EXPERIENCES IN GLACIERES. IO5 

narrow passage with chambers, and at least a hundred 
meters long, and fifty meters in depth below the surface. 
The cold air sinks in a certain distance, but as the passage 
is narrow and long, and too winding for any strong 
draughts, the cold air which enters is soon neutralized 
by the supply of warmer air within and by contact with 
the rocks. I cannot help thinking that it is by some 
such explanation that we must hope to solve the prob- 
lem of why certain caves are glacieres and others in 
the immediate neighborhood normal caves ; and the caves 
near Williamstown are exceptional in presenting the 
problem so patently. 



PART II. 



THE CAUSES OF SUBTERRANEAN ICE. 



THE CAUSES OF SUBTERRANEAN ICE. 



I. 

Terminology, — Ice enduring the entire year is found, 
in temperate latitudes, in a variety of forms and in 
several different kinds of places. In some cases it is 
entirely above the surface of the earth; in others it is 
entirely beneath the surface of the earth. These are the 
extremes, and between them there are certain interme- 
diate forms. The perennial ice above ground of tem- 
perate regions has gradually become known in English 
by the French word glacier, but strange to say, there is 
no term in use in English which accurately describes the 
perennial ice formations which are partially or completely 
underground. Thus the term ''ice cave" is applied to 
a rock cavern containing ice, and the term *'ice gorge" 
to a rock gorge containing ice. Both terms are mis- 
leading, because the character of the contents is men- 
tioned before the nature of the geological formation. We 
say correctly enough ''limestone cave" or "lava cave" 
and, in my opinion, we should apply the term " ice cave " 
in a similar manner to the hollows in the ice at the lower 
end of glaciers, whence the glacier waters make their 
exit. These are really "ice caves," that is caves with 

(109) 



no GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

sides and roof made of ice. Another trouble of the term 
" ice cave," as applied to rock formations containing 
ice, is that it is not generic : not only is it incorrect, but 
also it is not comprehensive. It does not apply to mines, 
tunnels, wells, gullies, boulder taluses, or underground 
ice sheets. If '' ice cave " is used, except in its true 
sense of glacier ice cave, it seems at least as though it 
should be so only for real caves which retain ice, as 
opposed to taluses and wells. Curiously enough, the 
Germans are just as inaccurate as ourselves, for their 
terms eishohle and eisloch are absolute translations of our 
" ice cave " and " ice hole." Indeed, there is no doubt 
that some of the incorrect notions about subterranean 
ice formations, are due to the inaccuracy of the ter- 
minology. 

The only language, so far as I know, which has a 
correct and really generic term for subterranean ice 
formations, is the French in its word glaciere. The 
French and Swiss say glacieres naturelles of ice deposits 
formed naturally underground; and glacieres artificielles 
of ice houses. Glaciere naturelle is comprehensive and 
accurate. It covers all the rock formations and suggests 
also the mode of formation of the ice. It likewise implies 
the strong resemblance between natural ice deposits and 
artificial ice houses. It might be well, therefore, if the 
French term glaciere were adopted as a generic term for 
all underground ice formations. As, however, there is 
little likelihood of this happening, the question arises as 
to the best English equivalent or equivalents. These 



THE CAUSES OF SUBTERRANEAN ICE. Ill 

seem to be *' freezing cavern, freezing talus," etc., " natural 
refrigerator " or *' subterranean ice formation." "Natural 
refrigerator" and ''subterranean ice formation" are more 
generic than ''freezing cavern, freezing well," etc.; but 
the latter have the advantage of suggesting immediately 
that reference is made to the hollows of the earth which 
at times contain ice ; and, therefore, they are the best 
terms, perhaps, which can be chosen in English. 

Another point in the terminology of this subject 
has reference to subterranean hollows where draughts 
issue or enter. Such hollows are found in all parts of 
the world and are known usually in English as "blow- 
ing caves" or "cold current caves." The Germans speak 
of them as windrbhren or windlocher. In my first pa- 
per about caves,^^ I used the word "windhole" which 
I translated from the German. The term "windhole" 
seems to me preferable to "blowing cave" or "cold 
current cave" in that it is more generic. It applies to 
taluses or boulder heaps, or in fact, to any hollows 
where draughts issue or enter, whether these hollows 
are genuine caverns or not. 

It is necessary also to explain here that " glaciere " 
and "windhole" are not synonymous terms. It must be 
understood that a glaciere or natural refrigerator is a 
place where ice forms and endures in a subterranean 
or semi-subterranean situation ; and that the presence of 
ice is the criterion of whether a place is or is not a 

"^"^ Ice Caves atid the Causes of Subterranean Ice, November 1896, 
and March 1897. 



112 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

oflaciere. Likewise it must be understood that a wind- 
hole or blowing cave is an underground hollow with at 
least two openings, and in which distinct draughts occur ; 
and that the presence of draughts is necessary to consti- 
tute a place a windhole or blowing cave. A freezing 
cavern may or may not be a windhole, and a windhole 
may or may not be a freezing cavern. 

Temperatures. — The phenomena of glacieres are so 
closely connected with temperatures that it seems nec- 
essary at this point to mention some general facts in 
connection with subterranean temperatures, even if these 
still form a subject of some uncertainty, and one about 
which further observation is desirable. Subterranean 
temperatures may be grouped under three heads: i, 
Ordinary or normal temperatures ; 2, Temperatures 
above the normal or super-normal temperatures ; 3, 
Temperatures below the normal or sub-normal tem- 
peratures. 

I. In the great majority of caves, cellars and subter- 
ranean places of all descriptions, the temperature of the 
air is about the same, all the year round, as that of the 
ground. The frost of winter and the heat of summer 
penetrate the earth for some trivial distance, a few 
meters perhaps, and lower or raise the temperature of 
the ground temporarily. Below this there is a stratum 
where the temperature is found to vary but little the en- 
tire year and which, in a majority of cases, approximates 
the mean annual temperature of the district. Below 



THE CAUSES OF SUBTERRANEAN ICE. II3 

this invariable stratum, the temperature generally rises 
slowly, not at exactly the same rate everywhere, but in a 
regular increase. This increase of temperature averages 
1° C. for every 32 meters. As most caves and cellars 
are of small depth and as they take their temperatures 
from that of the ground, it follows that as a rule their 
temperatures are moderate and pleasant. And as the 
air of the majority of caves and subterranean hollows 
is about the same as the temperature of the surround- 
ing rock, it is correct to call subterranean air tempera- 
tures closely approximating the ordinary temperature of 
the ground, ordinary or normal temperatures. 

As already stated, with an increase of depth, there 
is, in almost all cases, a regular increase of temperature. 
For this reason, mines, which are much the deepest hol- 
lows reached by man in the surface of the earth, are, as a 
rule, warmer in the lower levels : if deep, they are also 
hot. And this is so generally the case that warmer 
temperatures at the bottom of mines may be consid- 
ered as normal. 

2. In a few hollows close to the surface, there are 
temperatures much above the normal temperature of the 
ground. Such places are rare and abnormal.^^ The 
heat is generally due to the presence of hot springs or 
to some volcanic action in the immediate neighborhood. 
In the case of one cave close to the surface, the heat 
is due to some limekilns which are situated immediately 

^^ Kraus. Hohlenkunde, page 86. 



I 14 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

overhead. ^^ Where these warm hollows are genuine 
caves it seems proper to call them " hot caves/* 

3. In a number of places, there are abnormally low 
temperatures underground either for the whole or only 
for part of the year. Although commoner than hot caves, 
yet the underground places with low temperatures are 
also rare and abnormal. They may be divided into two 
groups: I, Those where the temperatures are lower 
than the normal, without becoming low enough for ice 
to form ; and 2, Those where the temperature sinks so 
low, that ice forms. 

It is difficult to make definite divisions among the 
various forms of natural refrigerators, but it is correct, 
probably, to classify them under five heads, in accordance 
with the different kinds of formations of the hollows in 
the rocks : 

1. Gullies, gorges, and troughs where ice and snow 
remain. 

2. Soil or rocks overlaying ice sheets. 

3. Taluses and boulder heaps retaining ice. 

4. Wells, mines and tunnels in which ice sometimes 
forms. 

5. Caves with abnormally low temperatures, and often 
containing ice. 

I. Gorges and Troughs, — Gullies, gorges and basins 
which retain snow and ice are fairly numerous in moun- 

^*Grotte du Jaur. Les Abimes, page 160. 



THE CAUSES OF SUBTERRANEAN ICE. II5 

tain districts. They are generally ravines, or rock 
fissures, or hollows, in positions below the snow line 
where snow and ice are sufficiently protected, from sun 
and wind, to remain long after snow in the surround- 
ing open country, at the same altitude, has melted 
away. Some of these gorges are small, some big. As 
a rule, they are deep and narrow. 

In north-eastern Siberia, a form of permanent surface 
ice is found, which the Tungusses speak of as tarinnen, 
which means '' ice troughs " or '* ice valleys." ^^ 
These tarinnen are broad valleys, with either a hori- 
zontal floor or one sloping gently in the form of a 
trough, over which the ice is spread in the form of 
a sheet. The Tungusses assert that the ice in some 
of these troughs never wholly melts away, although it 
lessens in quantity from the beginning of May till the 
end of August, after which it once more increases. 

Subterranean Ice Sheets. — In several places in differ- 
ent parts of the world there are underground ice sheets 
which extend over large spaces ; they are common under 
the tundras of Alaska; and there are fine examples 
on Kotzebue Sound, -^^ on the Kowak River, ^' and 
along the Yukon River.^^ The ''Ice Spring" in Oregon 

^'^ Bulletin de la classe physico-mathematique de V Acadhnie Im- 
periale des Sciences de St. Petersbourg. 1853. Vol. XI, pages 305- 
316. 

^^ See Part III: page 167. 

"See Part III: page 167. 

''See Part III: page 166. 



T'MW 



Il6 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

seems to be a formation of the same kind. Several ex- 
amples of these subterranean ice sheets are reported 
also from different parts of the Russian Empire. 

A somewhat different kind of ice sheet was observed 
on Mount Etna. Sir Charles Lyell ^^ speaks of it 
as a " glacier preserved by a covering of lava." He 
says Signor Mario Gemmellaro satisfied himself that 
nothing but a flowing of lava over snow could account 
for the position of the glacier. Ice sheets somewhat 
similar to these are reported from Tierra del Fuego,^° 
and probably also such sheets occur in Iceland ; and 
enormous heaps of ice covered with sand are found 
on Mount Chimborazo.^^ On the northwestern coast 
of Greenland, glaciers, whose flow has stopped, were 
observed buried under an accumulation of moss and 
grass.^^ 

Taluses and Boulder Heaps. — Taluses and broken 
debris, and in general boulder heaps of all sorts, have 
interstices and openings between the boulders, and in 
these it occasionally happens that ice is found. This is 
most common among the taluses at the base of cliffs, 
but in some cases ice is found among broken rocks on 
the sides of gently sloping hills, or even on the plateaus 
of their summits. Sometimes the ice and snow on the 

^^ Principles of Geology^ nth Edition, Chap. XXVI. 
^° See Part III : page 190. 
''See Part III: page 189. 
"See Part III: page 165. 



THE CAUSES OF SUBTERRANEAN ICE. 11 J 

bottom of rock gorges all melts away, while further 
down, in the hollows of the boulders forming the floor, 
ice still remains. The rocks of which these ice bearing 
taluses are formed are generally gneiss, granite, lime- 
stone, sandstone, basalt or porphyry. Among such boul- 
der taluses the phenomenon designated as Windrohren 
or Ventarolen, that is, windholes, is frequently found. 
Sometimes the air among such boulder formations is 
quiet, but as a general thing draughts pour out at the 
lower openings during the hot months, and blow into 
them during the cold ones. 

Freezing Wells, Mines and Tiimiels. — Subterranean 
ice is also found in certain places in connection with 
man's handiwork. In a few wells in the United States, 
the temperature in winter becomes abnormally low, and 
for four or five months these wells freeze up and be- 
come useless. A case of a freezing well was recently ob- 
served near la Ferte Milon in Central France.^ Ice is 
reported also as forming in various mines in Europe, 
Asia and America; in fact, it is not an uncommon oc- 
currence. Occasionally, also, ice forms in tunnels. 

Cold Caves. — Caves with abnormally low temperatures 
may be divided into two classes. First, caves where the 
temperatures are lower than the normal, without be- 
coming low enough for ice to form ; and second, caves 
where the temperatures sink so low, that ice forms. 



23 



See Part I. : pages 74, 79, 89. Part III. : page 206. 



Il8 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

Caves where the temperatures sink below the normal, 
but in which ice does not form either in winter or in 
summer, are found in several places in different parts of 
the world. They are termed in French cavernes froides 
and in German kalte hoJilen. There are but few data 
from reliable observers about such cold caves. Some 
descriptions are given without thermometric measure- 
ments, and the statements that the caves are cold, mean 
nothing beyond the fact that they feel colder than the 
outside air. It is, however, conclusively proved that cold 
caves exist, and that while they are not freezing caverns, 
yet that they have a temperature lower than the mean 
annual temperature of their district. In fact, the assump- 
tion, which had passed into an axiom, that caves always 
have the same temperatures as the mean annual temper- 
ature of the district, must certainly be given up. Cold 
caves are generally in one of two shapes : i, in the shape 
of a sand glass, — two cones above each other meeting 
at the narrowest point — where the upper cone lets the 
heavy cold air descend easily, while the lower bell shaped 
cone prevents its escape ; and 2, where two sink holes 
open into one pit, which is in the shape of a bell.^^ 

Glaciere Caves or Freezing Caves. — Caves where the 
temperatures sink so low that ice is able to form, are 
found in many different rock formations and in various 
positions, shapes and sizes. The rock formation of freez- 

^* Les AbimeSy page 563. 



THE CAUSES OF SUBTERRANEAN ICE. II9 

ing caverns is generally limestone, but sometimes it is 
marble, lava, basalt, gneiss or granite. In all cases, how- 
ever, the rock is either porous or else it is broken and 
fissured, as otherwise the water supply necessary to the 
formation of ice could not find its way in. 

Glaciere caverns may, for the sake of convenience, 
be classified into several classes, according to their posi- 
tion or to their form. The lines of transition between 
them, however, are so indefinite in nature, that it is often 
difficult to specify a cavern as belonging to any special 
type. The most important factor in classifying glaciere 
caves is their position. Under this head there are two 
main divisions : first, pit caves ; second, cliff caves. 

Pit caves are those where a pit or pits open into the 
ground, and the ice is found at the bottom. Sometimes 
there is no roof, when the place may be called a gorge: 
this occurs at EUenville, where the roof has fallen. 
Again, the pit itself is more or less roofed over and 
the ice is found mainly or wholly under the roof: this 
is the case at Haut d'Aviernoz, at the Friedrichsteiner- 
hohle, at Saint-Livres, and at Saint-Georges. Sometimes 
the pit takes the form of a descending tunnel, leading 
into a hall or chamber, in which the ice lies under a 
rock roof: this happens at Chaux-les-Passavant. In 
all these pit caves the body of the cave is below the 
entrance, and most of them are fairly well lighted by 
daylight throughout. Generally there is only one pit, 
but occasionally there are two connected underground, 
as is the case at La Genolliere. 



I20 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

Cliff caves are those where the entrance is at the 
base or in the side of a cHff. Frequently the cave is in 
the shape of a hall or chamber, which begins directly at 
the entrance, and which may be large or small. This 
kind always has a down slope directly from the mouth. 
The Kolowratshohle, Dobslna and the Grand Cave de 
Montarquis may be mentioned as examples. In some 
cases there is a pit at the base of a cliff and there is 
a slope leading down to the cave, somewhat in the form 
of a tunnel : this is the case at ]\Ianchester and practi- 
cally also at Roth. Again there is a more or less long 
galler}^ between the entrance and the glaciere, which 
is always below the level of the entrance. The Schaf- 
loch, Demenyfalva and Decorah may be cited as ex- 
amples. As a rule the galler}- slopes down from the 
entrance, but sometimes the floor rises and then sinks 
to the glaciere. The top of the entrance, however, is 
always higher than the highest point of the floor, as 
othenvise the cold air could not o;et in. This is the 
case at the Frauenmauerhohle, and, apparently, also at 
the Posselthohle. In one case, at Amarnath in Kash- 
mere, the floor is said to rise to the roof at the back ; 
but as the entrance is nearly as big as the floor area, 
the ice formations must also be below the level of the 
top of the entrance. 

The dimensions of glaciere caves var}' greatly. Some 
are large, others are small. Saint Georges, a roofed pit 
cave, is some twent)^-five meters by twelve meters, with 
a depth of about twelve meters. Chaux-les-Passavant, 



THE CAUSES OF SUBTERRANEAN ICE. 121 

a cave at the end of a pit tunnel, has a diameter of 
some twenty-seven meters. The measures of Dobsina, 
a cave at the bottom of a cHff, are given as follows : 
Height of roof above ice floor, lo to ii meters; length 
1 20 meters; breadth, 35 to 60 meters, and surface 
about 4644 meters. The Frauenmauerhohle is a gallery 
about one hundred meters long before the ice floor is 
reached, and this is some fifty meters more in length by 
about seven meters in width. The glaciere cave near 
Frain, on the contrary, is so small that one can only 
crawl in some two or three meters. In fact, glaciere 
caves vary in size between great halls and little tunnels 
where one cannot stand up straight. 

The entrances of glaciere caves also vary greatly in 
their dimensions. For instance, the Friedrichsteinerhohle 
is on one side of a huge pit and is as large and deep as 
the pit. Saint Georges, on the contrary, has, near one 
end of the roof, a couple of holes, some three meters in 
diameter. The entrance to the Schafloch is four meters 
wide by four meters seventy centimeters high, while the 
entrance to Roth is not over one meter each way. 

A classification of subterranean ice formations, and 
one which applies to all the different forms, is into per- 
manent and periodic glacieres. When in any underground 
spot, ice remains throughout the year, the place may be 
called a permanent glaciere ; when on the contrary the ice 
melts away for part of the year, the place may be called 
a periodic glaciere. This classification, which several ob- 
servers have used already, is convenient and valuable. 



/ 



122 GLACI^RES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

Movements of Air. — Another classification of glacieres 
can be made in accordance with the movements of air 
underground. Glacieres may be divided into those where 
there are no strong draughts in summer and those where 
there are draughts: or into "apparently static caves"; 
and ** dynamic caves" or "windholes." The first class 
includes those caves where there is one or more open- 
ings close together and those above the body of the 
cave. In such hollows the air in summer is nearly still, 
while in winter there are distinct rotary movements of 
the air as soon as the temperature outside is lower than 
that within. Almost all glaciere caves belong to this 
class of caves without strong draughts in summer. Some- 
times, however, ice is found in hollows where there are 
two or more openings, at different altitudes and at dif- 
ferent ends of the hollow, and where there are draughts. 
Occasionally, also, there are fissures in the sides or rear 
of apparently static caves, which allow something like 
draughts at times, as is the case at the Grand Cave de 
Montarquis. 

Professor Thury of Geneva coined the terms "static 
cave" and '' dynamic cave " which have come largely into 
use since, and which practically correspond to the German 
terms eishohle and windrohre. I do not think the term 
''static cave" accurate, and prefer the term "apparently 
static cave" or *'cave without distinct draughts." For al- 
though there are many caves where the air seems stagnant 
at times, and there are no distinct perceptible draughts, 
still that the air is really stagnant all summer appears to 



THE CAUSES OF SUBTERRANEAN ICE. 1 23 

me doubtful, and it seems as if the movements of 
air were distinctly apparent only in certain caves and 
not in others. Air which is apparently stagnant is 
found in both pit and cliff caves mainly in the sum- 
mer months, but even in these I have noticed several 
times in summer slight movements of air, especially 
near the entrance. I could not exactly feel the air 
moving, but by lighting a cigar the smoke could be 
seen borne outwards exceedingly slowly. At the en- 
trance of the Kolowratshohle I think there was a faint 
outward current when I was there. The day was hot 
and windless, and as the cold air met the hot outside 
air it formed a faint cloud or mist at the mouth of the 
cavern. At Saint-Georges, although the air seemed tran- 
quil, I found that the smoke of my cigar ascended rapidly 
just below the hole in the roof, showing an ascending 
air current. In the double cave of Chapuis, I found 
one cavern filled by a little lake over which there was a 
draught.^^ 

From the few winter observations we have, there can 
be no doubt that in winter the movements of the atmos- 
phere are lively, the break in the air column occurring 
as soon as the outside temperature is lower than that 
within, when the outer air immediately begins to sink 
into the cave.^® 

If I have doubts as to the existence of absolutely static 

'^ See Part IV. : Butler, page 308. 

^^ See Part III. : Chaux-les-Passavant, page 203 ; Saint-Georges, 
page 220. 



124 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

caves, It is different about dynamic caves. When a sub- 
terranean hollow goes through rocks, with one opening 
higher than the other, there will surely be distinct draughts. 
These dynamic caves exist In many parts of the world 
under such names as cold current caves or blowing caves 
or windholes. Sometimes they are fissures in broken 
limestone. Often they are the cracks between piles of 
boulders. A cool air generally pours from the lower 
opening In summer while the cold air pours Into it In 
winter, the draught being then reversed. At the upper 
opening the operation takes place in the opposite way, 
the hot air being sucked in in summer, and given out 
in winter. Sometimes, however, changes take place, ac- 
cording to the differences in the outside temperature, in the 
direction of the air current in the course of a single day. 
The causes of the movements of air in these wind- 
holes are exceedingly simple. The movements of air 
depend on the fact that in summer the air in the tube 
becomes colder from contact with the rocks and, there- 
fore, heavier than the air outside, and by gravity the 
heavy inside air displaces the lighter outside air and 
comes rushing out at the lower opening. This leaves a 
vacuum, which is filled by the warmer air dropping into 
the tube from above. In winter on the contrary, the air 
within the tube is warmed by contact with the rocks and 
becomes lighter than the air outside. It, therefore, rises 
and streams out from the upper opening, and the vacuum 
Is filled by the heavy cold air pushing in at the lower 
opening. 



THE CAUSES OF SUBTERRANEAN ICE. 



125 



G. F. Parrot's ^^ explanation is so satisfactory that I 
give it with one or two changes. He considers the air 
movements an ordinary statical phenomenon of the air, 
in caves which have two openings at different altitudes. 




«!:;r5«^":^«'''^ 



Fig. II. Vertical Section of a Windhole. 



Let E G D represent the section of such a cave with 
the openings A and B. Let us think that there are over 
C and B two vertical air columns and from B to C a 
horizontal air column B C ; then the two air columns over 
B and C are at all times of the year equal in weight. Not 
so the air columns A C and A E G D B, because their 

" Grundriss der Physik der Erde und Geologic, 181 5, pages 92-99. 



126 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

temperatures are different. Assume the temperature In 
the cave G Is 4- 12° the whole year round. If in sum- 
mer the air column A C Is at a temperature of + 25°, 
then the heavy air In the cave G pours out through A and 
is replaced by air flowing in through B. If in winter the 
air column A C Is at a temperature of — 1°, then the 
air pours with equal Inverse velocity at A into the cave, 
and out at B. The velocity of the current In both cases 
depends on the difference of temperature within and 
without. 

The foregoing explanation makes it evident that the 
movements of air in these windholes do not depend on 
the presence of ice. In many of those I have examined 
myself there was no Ice visible, and from the temper- 
ature of the air current, there could not have been any 
ice within the mountain. Still, there are numerous cases 
where ice is found in windholes among boulders, and 
a few cases where windholes exist in connection with 
apparently static glaciere caves. Undoubtedly the great 
majority of windholes do not contain ice in summer, or, 
indeed, at any time of the year, and, as far as I can see, 
windholes, according to their temperatures, belong rather 
to the class of normal caves than to that of glacleres. 

Forms of Ice. — Almost all the forms assumed by un- 
derground ice are different from those assumed by over- 
ground ice. This is not surprising, as the conditions, 
under which the ice is formed, are so different. Almost 
all the lines of underground ice are rounded. The sharp 



THE CAUSES OF SUBTERRANEAN ICE. 1 27 

angles and fractures visible on glacier or iceberg are 
absent. Instead of seracs and crevasses, broken ice falls, 
or piled up ice floes, we have hanging stalactites and ris- 
ing stalagmites, smooth ice floors and curved ice slopes. 
This difference is of course due to the fact that most 
subterranean ice is formed from the drip from the roof 
or the sides of caves, and because the factor of mo- 
tion — which plays so large a part in the shaping by 
fracture of overground ice — is practically wanting. 

The most striking forms of subterranean ice are the 
ice stalactites and stalagmites. They descend from the 
roof as icicles or rise from it as rough cones or pyra- 
mids. The icicles are of all sorts of shapes and sizes : 
sometimes they are tiny ; sometimes they grow down- 
ward till they reach the floor and form regular columns, 
in some cases no less than eleven meters in height. 

The ice stalagmites likewise are of all sorts of shapes 
and sizes, some of them growing to a height of seven 
or eight meters. Occasionally they have hollow bases, 
but this is rare. How these hollow cones are formed is 
a still uncertain matter ; but it is in some way by the 
action of the drip. At the Kolowratshohle I saw the drip 
from the roof cutting out in July the basin, whose tall re- 
maining sides suggested that early in the spring it was 
probably a hollow cone. The cone at the Schafloch of 
which I saw one half remaining, could only be accounted 
for by some action from the drip.^^ The warmth of the 



28 



See Part IV. : Thury, page 287 ; Browne, page 290. 



128 GLACI^RES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

rock floor may help perhaps also, in melting away some 
of the base of the hollow columns. 

The frozen waterfalls which issue from fissures in 
the rock walls of caves are another form of ice seen 
only below ground. For lack of a better name, I call 
them fissure columns. A peculiarity of these is that, 
while the rock fissure is more or less rectangular or at 
least sharp angled, the ice column issues in a rounded 
stream. Sometimes these fissure columns stream over 
the rock ; sometimes they spring out far enough from 
the rock to be quite away from it. They vary from 
about one to five meters in height, and at the base 
they almost always spread out in a shape resembling 
that of a fan. 

The ice on the bottom of caverns of course takes its 
shape from the form and angles of the floor of the caves. 
If the bottom is level or nearly so, the ice lies on it as 
a sheet or floor. If the bottom of the cave is sloping, the 
ice follows the angles of the slope, forming an ice slope 
or ice wall, and sometimes becoming nearly or quite 
vertical. These ice slopes distantly resemble the por- 
tions of glaciers called an ice fall, with the great dif- 
ference, however, that there are no crevasses, not even 
tiny ones. 

Occasionally, slabs of ice are found reposing in a 
fractured sheet over a solid ice floor. This means 
that a lake has formed on this spot in the spring, frozen 
over, and then run off, leaving its frozen surface in 
broken pieces on top of the under ice. 



THE CAUSES OF SUBTERRANEAN ICE. 1 29 

Another kind of frozen water is the hoar frost which 
forms on the rock roofs and walls. This is not at all 
rare. It is an open question whether this is not the 
same thing as that which has been described as subterra- 
nean snow.-^ I found myself in Dobsina a small sheet of 
what to look and touch was snow. I wrote of this as 
snow in my first paper about glacieres^^, but I am of 
the opinion now that it was the hoar frost detached 
from the roof and not genuine snow. 

At Dobsina, also, I noticed that the ice of the ice 
wall of the Korridor assumed a stratified or laminated 
form. Mr. John F. Lewis of Philadelphia suggested to 
me that this was probably due to a precipitation of the 
hoar frost from the roof, and I think his explanation is 
correct. The hoar frost forming at a certain degree of 
cold, would doubtless be precipitated at a rise of tem- 
perature, and would then act much as do the different 
layers of snow in the upper portion of glaciers. ^^ It 
would consolidate gradually, layer over layer, and form 
strata, producing the banded or laminated structure 
visible in the vertical ice of the Dobsina Korridor. 

The ice in caverns is sometimes found with a 
structure which is, I believe, of rare occurrence above 
ground. This is when it takes the shape known as 
prismatic ice, which means that if a lump is broken 

^See Part III. : Ziegenloch, page 247 ; Creux de Souci, page 207. 
^^ Ice Caves and the Causes of Subterranean Ice, November, 1896, 
and March, 1897. 

^^ Whymper : Scrambles amongst the Alps, 1871, page 426. 



130 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

from a column or icicle, the fracture will show regular 
prisms. This phenomenon is not as yet satisfactorily 
accounted for; the only thing certain about it is, that it 
does not occur in ice of recent formation. From my 
own observations, I should say that ice became prismatic 
at the end of summer; at least I have always found it 
in August or September rather than in June or July.^^ 

Besides building up ice heaps, the drip, also, has the 
function of destroying its own creations. If there are 
no crevasses, there are holes and runnels. These are 
generally found at or leading to the lowest point of the 
ice floor. Occasionally the holes are deep, sometimes 
many meters in depth. They are certainly cut out by 
the melting water, to which they offer an exit; in fact 
they are a part of the drainage system present in all gla- 
ciere caves, where there must be some outlet for sur- 
plus water at or near the lowest point : and as the 
caves are always in porous or broken rock, the drain- 
age takes place through the cracks and fissures. 

The drip produces also the exact opposite of pyra- 
mids in the shape of ice basins. These are cut in the 
floor by an extra strong drip from the roof at those 
spots. Basins exactly like these are not seen on glaciers. 
Not infrequently they are full of water of considerable 
depth. 

Lakes and pools are found in glaciere caves. Some- 
times they are on the ice floor, and in this case they 
are due either to rain-water collecting faster than it can 

^^ See Part IV. : Browne, page 289 ; Lohmann, page 303. 



THE CAUSES OF SUBTERRANEAN ICE. I3I 

flow off, or else because the cave is in a state of thaw. 
Sometimes these pools are among* the rocks in one part 
of a cave, while the ice is in another part. 

I have said above that motion in subterranean ice is 
practically wanting-. This is proved by the lack of cre- 
vasses on the ice slopes or ice walls, and also by the 
fact that basins and cones appear year after year in the 
same spots, where they remain whether they are increas- 
ing or diminishing. But this statement cannot be held 
to cover the entrance snow and ice slopes of some of 
the open pit caves such as the Gottscheer cave, or Saint- 
Livres or Haut d' Aviernoz. Here the snow, which falls 
on the entrance slope, must gradually gravitate to the 
bottom. The question is whether it only descends in the 
shape of water after melting or as snow before solidifying ; 
or whether it ever slides down at all after becoming some- 
what solidified. Probably, however, the ice of these slopes, 
judging from the fact that crevasses are entirely lacking, 
remains stationary. 

Color Effects. — The color effect of every glaciere 
cavern has a certain individuality, according to the color 
of the rocks, the quantity of ice, and the amount of 
daylight admitted through the entrance. In my opinion, 
the white note given by the ice, makes a fine glaciere 
cave the most beautiful of all subterranean hollows. 
In this respect it seems to me that they are similar to 
high Alps, which are certainly most impressive with cov- 
erings of snow and glacier. 



132 GLACI]fcRES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

There are, however, two distinct notes in the color 
effects of glaciere caves and these may be described as 
the partly subterranean, or as the wholly subterranean. 
In the former case the local tints stand out more clearly. 
For instance, at the Kolowratshohle the ice is beautifully 
transparent and of a pale ochre-greenish hue : the lime- 
stone rocks are streaked with iron, and thus have a red- 
dish hue, while, owing to the entrance admitting plenty 
of daylight, the effect is only semi-subterranean. Again, 
at Chaux-les-Passavant plenty of daylight is admitted : 
the rocks are a yellowish brown, and the ice is white 
and blue. At the Schafloch or the Frauenmauer, on 
the contrary, the effect is wholly subterranean : daylight 
is so completely absent that black is the predominating 
note, the ice itself looking gray. Dobsina is an excep- 
tion, as, thanks to the electric light, white is the con- 
spicuous tone, even though rocks and shadows dull many 
places and corners into a sombre gray. 

More than once, on returning to daylight from the in- 
tense blackness of a cave, I have seen the rocks near the 
entrance appear a dark blue color, exactly simulating 

moonlight. This effect Is common to both glaciere caves 
and ordinary caverns. It is a striking but rare phe- 
nomenon, and depends apparently on the shape of the 
cave. This moonlight effect only seems to occur when 
a cave makes an elbow directly after the mouth and 
then goes straight for some distance. When the day- 
light is actually in sight, the moonlight impression van- 
ishes. 



THE CAUSES OF SUBTERRANEAN ICE. 1 33 

Carbonic Acid Gas. — Carbonic acid gas, judging from 
the most recent explorations, is more of a rarity in rock 
caves with normal temperatures than is generally supposed. 
There appears to be only one case on record where this 
gas was observed in a cold cave. This was in the 
Creux-de-Souci,^^ which is rather a cold than a freezing 
cavern, but which on one occasion was found to contain 
snow, and whose temperature is always extremely low. 
From the present state of knowledge, therefore, it may 
be assumed that if carbonic acid gas does' form in gla- 
ciere caves, it does so only seldom. 

Fauna. — No attention whatever has been paid, prac- 
tically as yet, as to whether any distinctive animal life 
exists in glacieres. So far, I have seen none myself. 
The Rev. G. F. Browne, in four instances, found a large 
red-brown fly nearly an inch long, which is supposed to 
be Stenophylax Hieroglyphicus of Stephens ; and at Cha- 
puis, he obtained an ichneumon of the genus Paniscus. 
At Font d'Urle, Monsieur Villard captured a blind spe- 
cimen of a coleoptera, Cytodromus dapsoides. A variety 
of rotifer, Notholca longispina, is now living in the Creux- 
de-Souci. In Skerisora, remains of bats have been 
found, not very different from those now living in the 
neighborhood.^^ It is, in any case, certainly remarkable 

^^ See Part III. : page 207. 

^*See Part I. : Ausable Pond, page 81, and Part III. : Creux-de- 
Souci, page 207 ; Font d'Urle, page 213 ; Chapuis, page 216 ; La 
Genolliere, page 219 ; Skerisora, page 245. 



134 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

that the same kind of fly should have been discovered 
in several glacieres in different localities ; and it may 
some day be shown that there is a special insect fauna. 
Certainly the subject is worth investigating.^ 

Flora. — The flora of glacieres has been as little ob- 
served as the fauna. There are scarcely any references to 
such a thing as glaciere plant life in literature. Whether 
there is a special flora in any glaciere cave is still an 
open question. In the cases of several boulder taluses, 
there is no doubt that, even if there is not a special 
flora, at least that the plants near the ice beds are 
greatly retarded every year in their development. Prob- 
ably the flora among the boulders blooms a month or six 
weeks later than the flora in the immediate vicinity. In 
the cases of the Cave of Paradana and of the Kuntschner 
Eishohle it is reported that the plant life becomes more 
and more arctic in character towards the bottom of the 
pit.^^ 

Paleontology. — No paleontological remains have as yet 
been reported from glaciere caves. No bones of animals 
have been found, except those of bats in Skerisora^^ 

^In June, 1899, I mentioned these facts to Monsieur Armand Vir6, 
director of the Biologic Laboratory in the catacombs of the Jardin des 
Plantes in Paris. He was much interested, and promised to make a 
careful investigation of the matter. 

^^ See Part I. : Ausable Pond, page 80 ; Giant of the Valley, page 
83, note 7 ; Ice Gulch, page 85 ; Spruce Creek, page 91. See Part 
III : Spruce Creek, page 188 ; Paradana, page 237 ; Kuntschner Eis- 
hohle, page 241. 

^^ See Part III. : Skerisora, page 245. 



THE CAUSES OF SUBTERRANEAN ICE. 1 35 

and a few of the common genus bos.^^ No relics of the 
handiwork of man have been discovered ; nor, indeed, 
with the exception of the skeletons found in the cave 
of Yeermallik in Kondooz,^^ anything which reveals the 
presence of man in glacieres or that they were ever used 
for habitation. The reason that there are so few remains 
in glaciere caves is undoubtedly because their temperatures 
are too low for their occupation by animal or man ; but, 
from the evidence afforded by their non-occupation, may 
be drawn the valuable inference that the glaciere caves 
of to-day were glaciere caves long ago. 

Legends and Religion, — There are scarcely any legends 
connected with glacieres. I know only of one about one 
of the caves of the Mont Parmelan/^ Nor does there 
seem to be any reference to glaciere caves in works of 
fiction. Dante makes his last hell full of an ice lake, but 
an attentive perusal fails to reveal a single line which in 
any way describes or suggests a glaciere. In at least two 
cases,^^ however, the ice in caves is connected with re- 
ligion, as in Kashmere, the Hindoos, and in Arizona, the 
Zuni Indians, either worship or pray at glaciere caves, 
overawed, from some mystical feeling, by the permanence 
of the ice formations which they connect with their deities. 

^^ See Part I. : Saint-Livres, page 68. 
^^ See Part III. : Yeermallik, page 261. 
*" See Part III. : Glaciere de I'Enfer, page 216. 
*^ See Part III. : Amarnath, page 262 ; Cave, White Mountains, 
Arizona, page 176. 



136 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

n. 

The cause of the formation of subterranean ice is un- 
doubtedly one of the most intricate problems in connec- 
tion with caverns. Various theories have been advanced 
why ice is found in certain caves and not in others. Some 
writers have held that it is a remnant of a glacial period ; 
others that it is owing to the presence of salts in the rocks ; 
some have said that it is due to the rocks retarding waves 
of heat and cold ; and still others think that it is formed by 
pressure on the percolating waters. Many of these the- 
ories were formulated in explanation of the belief of peas- 
ants living near the caves, who almost always say that 
the ice is formed in summer and melts in winter. Most 
scientific observers on the other hand claim that the 
ice is due to the cold of winter, and a few think that 
it is formed or helped by draughts and by evaporation 
and expansion of the air. The variety of opinions put 
forth, show at any rate the intricacy of the problem. 

All my own observations have tended more and more 
to make me believe that the cold of winter is the cause 
of the ice. Before elaborating my own views, however, 
I wish to take up seriatim the theories which have been 
formulated, principally in explanation of the belief that 
the ice was a summer product, and to give my reasons 
for my disbelief in them. 

Glacial Period, — The first theory, perhaps, to touch 
on, is the one that the ice is a remnant of a glacial 



THE CAUSES OF SUBTERRANEAN ICE. 1 37 

period. This seems to occur to many persons as a so- 
lution of the question when they first hear of glacieres, 
and it has been several times propounded to me, and 
naturally enough, always by scientific men.^ Still I do 
not think it has ever been held by anyone who had 
made a study of glacieres. 

The theory is, indeed, untenable in regard to freezing 
caves, as it does not accord with the observed facts of the 
yearly disappearance of the ice in many caves and taluses. 
At Szilize every year the ice has disappeared pretty com- 
pletely by November, and the cave is free; but in 
April or May the floor is again covered with ice, and 
columns and icicles have formed on the roof and sides. 
At La Genolliere the cave is used by the people of the 
neighboring chalets, through the spring and early sum- 
mer, to help in the operation of butter making; by the 
middle or the end of August it has entirely disappeared, 
but is found formed afresh the following spring. At the 
Rumney Talus, at the Cave of Decorah, at the Gorge 
of Ellenville, and at the Williamstown Snow Hole, I 
found no snow or ice. ^^ Yet it is abundant in all these 
localities in the spring. Too many examples of the com- 
plete melting away of the ice every year can be cited, 
to permit any doubt: glaciere caves are not connected 
with a glacial period. 

*^ See Part IV. : Hitchcock, page 284 ; Bonney, page 291 ; Dawkins, 
page 292. 

*^ See Part I. : Rumney, page 85 ; Decorah, page S8 ; Ellenville, 
page 91 ; Williamstown, page 98. 



138 GLACI^RES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

Though It may be stated positively that the Ice in 
caves Is not a remnant of a glacial period, yet this can- 
not be done so authoritatively about subsoil ice sheets 
and freezing wells. At Brandon, Owego and Decorah 
the ofravel was found frozen at the time the wells were 
dug, and it is of course impossible to determine for how 
long a time this was the case previous to the digging. 
The proofs, however, are so strong that the Ice re-forms 
every winter at such freezing wells, that they may be 
considered as In every respect following the same gen- 
eral laws as glaciere caves. That the Ice In these wells 
is not the remains of a glacial period, seems proved 
moreover by the work of the Boston Natural History 
Society, which sank two wells at Brandon near to the 
Freezing well. One of these was only twenty-one meters 
distant and went through the same gravel drift. Yet it 
did not strike Ice.^ A somewhat similar state of things 
appears to be the case with the Centennial Lode and 
other lodes on Mount McClellan,^^ where the causes also 
seem to be local, as there Is no Ice In mines on neigh- 
boring mountains. 

The Summer s Heat Theory. — The natives and peasants 
in the neighborhood of glaciere caves generally believe 
that the ice of caves is formed in summer and melts in 
winter. I have met with this belief everywhere In Eu- 

** See Part IV. : Hager, page 282 ; Hitchcock, page 284. 
*^ See Part III. : Rifts of Ice, etc., page 174. 



THE CAUSES OF SUBTERRANEAN ICE. 1 39 

rope ; in the Eifel, Jura, Swiss Alps, Tyrolese Alps, and 
Carpathians : and also occasionally in the United States. 
Peasants and guides tell you with absolute confidence : 
''The hotter the summer the more ice there is." The 
strange thing is that any number of writers ^^ — sometimes 
scientific men — have accepted the ideas and statements 
of the peasants about the formation of ice in summer, 
and have tried to account for it. 

The belief of the peasants is founded on the fact that 
they scarcely ever go to any cave except when some 
tourist takes them with him, and, therefore, they rarely 
see one in winter, and their faith is not based on ob- 
servation. It is, however, founded on an appearance of 
truth: and that is on the fact that the temperatures of 
glaciere caves, like that of other caves or that of cellars, 
are colder in summer than the outside air, and warmer in 
winter than the outside air. Possessing neither reason- 
ing powers nor thermometers, the peasants simply go a 
step further and say that glaciere caves are cold in sum- 
mer and hot in winter. 

Professor Thur^^ tells a stor}^ to the point. He vis- 
ited the Grand Cave de Montarquis in midwinter. All 
the peasants told him there would be no use going, as 
there would be no ice in the cave. He tried to find 
even one peasant who had been to the cave in winter, 
but could not. He then visited it himself and found it 

** Among them may be mentioned : Boisot, 1686 ; Valvasor, 1689 ; 
Behrens, 1703 ; Billerez, 1712 ; Bel, 1739 : Rosenmiiller and Tillesius, 
1799 ; Sartori, 1809 ; Pictet, 1822 ; Scrope, 1826 ; Murchison, 1845. 



140 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

full of hard ice. On his return he told the peasants of 
his discovery. They were staggered at first, finally one 
exclaimed: ''It makes no difference ; in genuine glacieres 
there is no ice in winter." 

It will be difficult, probably, to eradicate this belief and 
the consequent theories among the uneducated people in 
the vicinity of glaciere caves, for their imperfect obser- 
vations will keep it alive. In refutation, it may be said 
that the winter's cold theory is the direct opposite of the 
summer's heat theory, and that all the observations and 
all the facts which prove the one, disprove the other. 

Within two or three years, however, the formation of 
small quantities of ice has been observed during the 
summer months in one or two caves. This has taken 
place in mountain caves situated at a high altitude at 
times when the air outside has dropped below freezing 
point during the night. There is, therefore, nothing in- 
consistent in this fact with the winter's cold theory: 
indeed it is only a widening of it in the meaning of the 
word winter.*^ 

Chemical Causes. — Non-scientific persons, on first hear- 
ing of glaciere caves, almost always suggest that to form 
the ice there must be salts in the rocks. Probably they 
connect unconsciously in their minds '' ice caves " and 
" ice cream." 

*^ See Part III. : Beilsteinhohle, page 235. Part IV. : Professor 
Cranmer, page 310. 



THE CAUSES OF SUBTERRANEAN ICE. I4I 

Chemical causes, however, have never appealed to 
scientific men.^^ There are only two places I know of 
where salt is reported. One is the Ice Spring in Ore- 
gon, which is said to be slightly saline in taste ; the 
other is the Cave of Illetzkaya-Zatschita, where the gyp- 
sum hillock, in which the ice is found, overlies a bed 
of rock salt. Repeated experiments in letting lumps of 
glaciere ice melt in my mouth have convinced me per- 
sonally that in all cases the water is exceedingly pure 
and sweet, a fact mentioned in the very first notice ex- 
tant about glacieres, the letter of Benigne Poissenot in 
1586, who speaks of the deliciousness of the water in 
Chaux-les-Passavant. To sum this matter up briefly, it 
can be safely asserted that all causes, which would fall 
under the head of "Chemical causes," must be entirely 
eliminated as possible cold producers. 

Waves of Heat and Cold. — ^While Sir Roderick Mur- 
chison was studying the geology of Russia, ^^ he visited 
Illetzkaya-Zatschita and was puzzled to account for the 
ice formations. He thought, at first, that they were due 
to the presence of salt, but recognizing that this was not 
correct he submitted the case to Sir John Herschel, who, 
rejecting the evaporation or condensation of vapor as the 
cause, argued that the ice was due to waves of heat and 
cold, and that at certain depths in the interior, the cold 



48 
49 



See Part IV. : Billerez, page 270 ; Hacquet, page 271. 
The Geology of Russia and the Ural Mountains^ vol. I., pages 
184-198. 



142 GLAClfeRES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

wave arrived in midsummer and the heat in midwinter. 
Murchison declined to assent to this doctrine, asking 
why one cave should present this exceptional occurrence, 
when the numerous other rents and openings in the same 
hillock were free from ice. The impossibility of the heat 
and cold wave theory was so completely shown by Mur- 
chison's objection, that it has never again been brought 
forward. 

Capillary or Compressed Air Theory, — The possibil- 
ity of compressed air causing subterranean ice to form 
seems to have been first authoritatively formulated by Mr. 
N. M. Lowe, of Boston.^^ His theory in brief is this : — 
Bubbles of air drawn into water flowing down through 
fissures in rocks are liable to a continually increasing 
pressure. When the air has reached the bottom and 
is liberated in the cave, it will be from a pressure 
equal to the height of the column of water, and it will 
have lost by connection in the mass through which the 
conduit passes, the heat due to its compression ; and on 
being liberated, it will immediately absorb from the air 
and the water in the cave, the heat which it has lost in 
its downward passage. 

Several scientific observers have rallied to this idea.^^ 
One of the Hungarian residents at Dobsina, a doctor, 
whose opportunities for observations are unrivalled, told 

^Science Observer. Boston, 1879, vol. II., page 57. See Part IV. : 
Silliman, page 279 ; Olmstead, page 282. 

" See B. Schwalbe, Ueber Eishdhlen und Eislocher^ page 56. 



THE CAUSES OF SUBTERRANEAN ICE. 1 43 

me — if I understood him correctly — that he believed in 
the capillary theory. 

There are many facts, however, which militate against 
the compressed air theory as applied to caves. Almost 
all caves receive some drip through fissures, and yet 
there are many thousands of caves which never contain 
ice, and whose temperature scarcely varies the year round. 
Especially against the theory is the fact that glaciere caves 
are never known in hot countries. If the theory were 
correct we should, for instance, sometimes find ice in such 
caves as those of Yucatan described by Mr. Mercer.^^ 

There are also some mechanical difficulties in the 
way. Mr. John Ritchie ^^ touches them when he says: 
*Tf the passage through which the water flows down is 
at all tubular the column will be subjected to the usual 
hydrostatic pressure." The word tubular is the hard 
one to answer. Limestone rock fissures are certainly 
not tubular. They have all sorts of shapes and angles 
and corners, every one of which would interfere with 
anything like a regular pressure. 

This latter objection would not apply to borings in 
mines. I have been assured that in some borings in 
Western mines ice has been formed by pressure, and 
there may be truth in this, although I doubt it, as I have 
yet to hear of ice in any mines in warm latitudes. Mr. 
John Ritchie^ has suggested, also, that if compressed air 



^^ The Hill Caves of Yucatan. 

^^ Boston Transcript, January 2d, 1 897. 

^* The Happy Thought. Boston, January 23d, 1897. 



144 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

does not perhaps act strongly enough to form ice, yet it 
may help in keeping the temperature low and aid in the 
formation of draughts in caves and boulder heaps. At 
present, however, I can see no reason to think that the 
ice in caves is due to compressed air.^^ 

III. 

I have already said that I believe that the cold of 
winter is the cause of the ice in caves. To make 
this clearer, I may say that I look on glacieres as the 
last outcrop, the outside edge, so to speak, of the area 
of low temperatures, which has its culminating point in 
the Northern Hemisphere in the Arctic Ocean, Greenland 
and Siberia, and in the Southern Hemisphere in the Ant- 
arctic; and which is manifested to us in the snows of 
mountain peaks, and immediately round us in frozen ponds 
and rivers and snowy blizzards ; and which, as it disap- 
pears each summer, leaves its last traces in our latitudes 
in sequestered gorges and convenient caverns. In every 
case, it seems to me, glacieres are simply refrigerators, 
which preserve the ice and snow accumulated in them 
during the winter. They all follow the same general laws 
as to the origin of their contents, modified only in slight 
degree according to the varying natural local conditions, 
such as the water supply, or the protection from 
sun and wind, or the thickness of the overhead rock, or 
the altitude or latitude. I cannot see that there is any- 



&5 



See Part I. : page 89. 



THE CAUSES OF SUBTERRANEAN ICE. 1 45 

thing remarkable about the fact that the cold of winter 
is able to penetrate and make itself felt sometimes for 
a slight depth in the earth's crust; a depth, so far as 
yet known, never exceeding one hundred and fifty meters. 
It seems to me that glacieres only emphasize a law 
of nature, which has doubtless been formulated many 
times in connection with springs and phreatic waters, 
and that is, that where we find cold waters underground, 
we may be sure that they have penetrated from the 
outside. 

If we look first at the mode of formation of over- 
ground perennial ice, that is, of the ice of glaciers and of 
rock gorges ; and then at the evidences of the mode 
of formation of underground perennial ice, in boulder 
heaps, wells and caves ; we will soon see that the transi- 
tions between them are gentle in character and that 
there is nothing unnatural about the formation of the 
ice in glacieres. 

Glaciers. — Everyone now knows the main character- 
istics of glaciers. They are formed in parts of the 
earth where the land or the mountains reach to the 
region of perpetual snow. The snows fall from the 
sky, and accumulate into a snow cap, which by its own 
weight and by melting and regelation, gradually changes 
to ice. This, by the laws of gravitation, descends to 
lower levels, and in mountain valleys extends sometimes 
far below the snow line into the region of cultivated 
fields. These valley prolongations of the perpetual snow 



146 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

caps are the glaciers. The Important point to notice 
here, is that the formation of glaciers is originally en- 
tirely due to the precipitation of moisture by cold in the 
upper portions ; while the destruction of glaciers is due 
to the action of heat melting the ice in the lower por- 
tions, where they disappear in the shape of streams of 
running water. It is, therefore, not surprising that the 
greatest glaciers are found in the Arctic and Antarctic 
regions and in the highest mountain ranges ; and that 
in the tropics glaciers are either wanting or exceed- 
ingly small. 

Gorges and Troughs, — Gorges and gullies, where Ice 
remains over, are a transitional form between glaciers and 
glacieres. In many mountain ravines or canyons, the 
enduring snow consists principally of the avalanches 
which have fallen from the heights above during the 
winter and solidified In the bottom of the ravines. 
Freezing gorges proper, however, are not dependent 
on avalanches for their supply, but they receive the 
accretions to their ice directly from the winter snows. 
These fall into the gorge Itself and by melting and regela- 
tion gradually solidify into a mass of Ice which, when 
well sheltered against sun and wind, remains over some- 
times till the following winter. By their mode of forma- 
tion, therefore, It Is evident that the Ice In these gorges 
has some of the characteristics of glaciers ; that It Is due 
to the same prime causes as the Ice of glaciers or the Ice 
on ponds and rivers, namely the cold of winter ; and in . 



THE CAUSES OF SUBTERRANEAN ICE. 1 47 

fact, it is not far wrong to consider these gorges as 
miniature glaciers. 

Freezing gorges, however, show, also, certain degrees 
of kinship to freezing caverns and taluses, principally in 
the protection afforded to the ice against external de- 
structive influences. The ice is almost always found in 
positions where it receives little, if any, of the direct 
rays of the sun and, also, where it is scarcely, if at all, 
exposed to any winds. The sides of the fissures and 
surrounding trees generally afford the necessary pro- 
tection. Some of the forms which the ice assumes in 
gorges, such as long pendent icicles, are also more char- 
acteristic of underground than of overground ice. 

The freezing troughs or basins found in Siberia are 
evidently closely related to gorges, and the fact that the 
ice is found in less sheltered places may be explained 
by the high northerly latitudes of these troughs, in gen- 
eral between fifty-seven and sixty degrees. 

The Winter s Cold Theory. — The places where ice is 
found underground differ in one important respect from 
gullies and troughs, and that is, in the fact that above 
the ice there is rock or soil, which, in true caves, takes 
the form of a roof This causes some important dis- 
tinctions between overground and underground perennial 
ice. It means that the ice is formed directly in the caves, 
and that it is genuine subterranean ice, and not, except 
perhaps near the entrance, solidified snow. The roof, 
while not admitting the winter snows, is, however, a pro- 



148 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

tection against warm summer rains, and, of course, entirely 
cuts off radiation from the sky. If, therefore, it keeps 
out some cold, it also acts as a protector against heat. 

That the cold of winter is the source of the cold which 
produces the ice which forms underground, and that it 
is throuo^h its influence, with the assistance of certain 
secondar)' causes, that some caves are converted into 
what are practically natural ice houses, seems to me the 
true explanation of the phenomenon of subterranean ice, 
not only since it is the simple and obvious explanation, 
but also because all the facts, so far as I have myself 
obsen^ed, are in accord with this theor}^^ 

To form subterranean ice, just as to form any other ice, 
two things are necessary : the first is cold, the second is 
water. Cold is supplied by the cold air of winter, and 
water must in some manner find its way into the cave 
while the cold air is there. 

The process is as follows : The cold air of winter 
sinks into and permeates the cave, and in course of time 

^ Among those who have written or said that the cold of winter 
plays a more or less important part in the formation of subterranean 
ice may be mentioned : Poissenot, 1586 ; Gollut, 1592 ; DeBoz, 1726 ; 
Nagel, 1747; Cossigny, 1750; Jars, 1774; Hacquet, 1778; Girod- 
Chantrans, 1783 ; Hablizl, 1788 ; Prevost, 1789 ; Townson, 1797 ; 
Humboldt, 18 14 ; Dearborn, 1822 ; Deluc, 1822 ; Dewey, 1822 ; Lee, 
1824 ; Reich, 1834 ; Hayden, 1843 ; Guyot, 1856 ; Rogers, 1856 ; 
Petnizzi, 1857 5 Smyth, 1858 ; Hager, 1S61 ; Thur}', 1861 ; Browne, 
1865 ; Raymond, 1869 ; Krenner, 1874 ; Ritchie, 1879 ; Benedict, 
1 88 1 ; Schwalbe, 1881 ; Fugger, 1883 ; Trouillet, 1885 ; Girardot, 
1886 ; Russell, 1890 ; Martel, 1892 ; Krauss, 1894 ; Lohmann, 1895 ; 
Balch, 1896; Cvijic, 1896; Butler, 1898; Kovarik, 1898; Cranmer, 
1899. 



THE CAUSES OF SUBTERRANEAN ICE. 1 49 

freezes up all the water which, In the shape of melting 
snow or cold winter rain or spring water, finds its way 
in ; and once ice is formed it remains long after ice in 
the surrounding open country has melted away, because 
heat penetrates with difficulty into the cave. The only 
effect of the heat of summer Is to melt the ice. 

The proofs, to my mind, of the truth of this view are : 
I — Glacieres are always found in parts of the world 
where, during part of the year at least, the temperatures 
of the surrounding country fall below freezing point. 2 — 
All observations by reliable observers show that the 
tem.peratures of glaciere caves vary, but in a much nar- 
rower thermometric scale, with those of the outside air : 
that the temperatures are lowest, and as a rule below 
freezing point, during the winter months ; and that the 
temperatures are highest, and as a rule above freezing 
point, during the summer months. 3 — Ice Is never found 
far from the mouth of caves, but always near enough 
for the cold air to get in. 4 — Evaporation, according to 
my observations, is, as in all other forms of ice in nature, 
connected mainly with the melting, not the freezing of 
the ice. 

Geographical Distribittio7i and Altihides, — Glaciere 
caves proper are found in various parts of Europe, 
Asia, and America, mostly in the smaller mountain 
ranges or in the outliers of the snowy mountain 
chains ; generally In limestone and occasionally in ba- 
saltic formations. There are a good many in the Jura; a 



150 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

few in the Swiss and the Italian Alps ; a number in the 
Eastern Alps of Tyrol and Carinthia. There are some 
in Hungary, several in Russia, one in Iceland, one on the 
Peak of Teneriffe, a number in Siberia, one in Kondooz 
in Central Asia, one in the Himalaya, one in Japan, and 
one in Korea. I have heard so far of over fifty glacieres 
in North America, several of which are in Pennsylvania. 
From all over the world there are some three hundred 
places reported where subterranean ice is said to occur. 
This includes gorges, boulder heaps and freezing mines 
and wells, all of which exist in much the same locali- 
ties as glaciere caves. 

All the glacieres which I know of, are situated in a 
latitude or at an altitude where ice and snow forms for 
part of the year in the surrounding open country. None 
are reported from India or Africa, or in fact from any 
low-lying places in tropical latitudes. Most of them are 
found in middle latitudes, and only where during part 
of the year, at least, there is a cold season, that is, where 
for some time the thermometer stands below freezing 
point. 

Glacieres are, in general, at fairly high altitudes. The 
Schafloch is at 1780 meters; Skerisora in Transylvania 
at 1 127 meters; Dobsina at iioo meters; the Glaciere 
de Saint-Georges at 1208 meters. It is true that there 
is one freezing cavern in the sub-tropical latitude of Ten- 
eriffe, La Cueva de la Nieve ; but it is at an altitude of 
3300 meters, and where snow falls every year in the 
open on the Peak. Unless some freezing cave is here- 



THE CAUSES OF SUBTERRANEAN ICE. I5I 

after discovered in a region where there Is no ice in the 
open in winter, I do not see how the imperative necessity 
of the cold air of winter for forming the supply of Ice 
can be controverted. 

Thermometric Observations. — That the cold air of win- 
ter is the important factor in the production of cold is 
proved, also, by the thermometric observations recorded 
in various caves by different observers. They all tell 
the same tale: that the temperatures vary with those of 
the outside air, that they are lowest in winter and high- 
est in summer. I quote in the ^* List of Glacleres " ^^ a 
few of those published ; but there are many more, and 
they all show the same general characteristics. 

A comparison of all the figures recorded proves that, 
as a rule — inside of glaclere caves — from about the first 
of November to the first of July, there are winter tem- 
peratures, that is temperatures below freezing point ; and 
from about the first of July to the first of November, 
there are summer temperatures, that Is temperatures 
above freezing point. 

The observations prove also that the inner temper- 
atures vary less than the outer, that Is that they range 
within narrower limits. They also show that the inner 
air is but slowly affected by the outer air when the 



^^See Part III. : Decorah, page 178; Chaux-les-Passavant, pages 
203-5 \ La Poujade, page 208 ; Montarquis, page 218 ; Saint- Georges, 
page 219 ; Schafloch, page 223 ; Kolowratshohle, page 227 ; Schellen- 
berger Eisgrotte, page 228 ; Frain, page 252 ; Dobsina, page 253 ; etc. 



152 GLACIl^RES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

latter is above freezing point, the inner temperature 
rising then only gradually. Per contra, when the outside 
temperature drops quickly much below freezing point, 
the inside temperature generally drops correspondingly 
at once, proving that the cold air has sunk by its weight 
into the cave. The observations also prove that the old 
idea that the temperature of caves is the same through- 
out, can no longer be considered correct. The observa- 
tions also appear to show, that the temperature of a 
cave does not necessarily represent the mean annual 
temperature of a surrounding district. Observation is 
still entirely lacking on the mean annual temperature 
of glacieres, so that one cannot speak definitely about 
the matter ; but it seems likely that the mean annual 
temperature of a glaciere cave is lower than the isotherm 
of its locality; and it seems more than probable that on 
the same isotherm different glaciere caves may have 
different mean annual temperatures, varying with the 
elements of siz€, quantity of ice, position of body of 
cave and of entrance, water supply and other factors. 

Ice near the Entrance of Caves and the Surface of the 
Soil. — An important proof that it is the cold air of winter 
which forms the ice is the fact that the latter is always 
found near the entrance of caves or near the surface 
of the soil. It never extends far within. To the best 
of my knowledge, ice has never been found two hun- 
dred meters from the entrance nor at any depth be- 
yond one hundred and fifty meters. In all caves of 



THE CAUSES OF SUBTERRANEAN ICE. 1 53 

great extent, the temperature far in is about the same 
as that of the surrounding rock, and in all deep borings 
the temperature increases with the depth and at great 
depths the temperature becomes high. This nearness of 
subterranean ice to the outside air is one of the best 
proofs, that, paradoxical as the whole phenomenon ap- 
pears at first, yet in reality it is an extremely simple 
matter. 

The position of the entrance of a cave in relation 
to the body of the cave is an important factor in per- 
mitting the cold air to permeate and remain in the 
cave. In all the caves or gullies I have examined my- 
self, the main mass of ice is well below the level of' 
the entrance, and even if the latter is sheltered against 
the wind, it is not sheltered against the cold air of 
winter. This is heavy, and by its own weight sinks 
well down to the bottom, freezing up in course of 
time all the moisture that may drip from the roof, or 
that may come into the cave in the shape of melted 
snow or cold winter rain. The summer air, which is 
warm and, therefore, light, can only enter the cave 
with great difficulty ; and, as a rule, before it dislodges 
the winter air and destroys the ice, another winter's 
freeze reverses once more the conditions. These prin- 
ciples seem to hold of every known glaciere. It is true, 
that at the Frauenmauer, the floor of the cavern rises 
somewhat from the entrance; but the highest point of 
the floor is still below the level of the top of the en- 
trance, so that the cold air can flow over the highest 



154 GLAClfeRES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

point without difficulty. The same appears to be the 
case at the Posselthohle ; while at Amarnath in Kash- 
mere, where the floor is said to rise to the back wall, 
the entrance is about as large as the area of the floor, 
so that the ice must also be below the level of the top 
of the entrance. 

The position or situation of the entrance is impor- 
tant. In almost all cases it has a northerly exposure, 
and is sheltered against entering winds. If these two 
conditions do not exist the ice supply surely suffers. 
Sometimes the entrance is more or less tortuous. In 
some cases It Is protected by a fringe of trees. Still, 
there is no absolute rule about entrances. The Frled- 
rlchsteinerhohle faces about due south, and at midday 
in summer, the sun shines all the way down to the 
ice floor, causing mists to form. In the Kolowratshohle, 
the entrance is badly sheltered against the wind and 
this undoubtedly affects the supply in summer and causes 
more rapid melting there than in some other cases.^^ 

Freezing boulder taluses Invariably have the ice near 
the surface, and probably it is never a dozen meters 
distant from the open air. These taluses are one of 
the strongest links in the chain of evidence proving the 
winter's cold theory. The snow and ice on the surface 
of the taluses and on the surface of the boulders in 
gullies melts away, while it still lingers underneath the 
boulders. It seems self-evident that the melting snow 
water has run to the lowest level and there congealed, 

^See Part III. : Decorah, page 178. 



THE CAUSES OF SUBTERRANEAN ICE. 1 55 

and then remained because it was better sheltered than 
the ice outside. 

The subsoil ice of the tundras of Siberia and Alaska 
is almost identical with the ice of boulder formations, 
except that it extends under larger areas. It is the prod- 
uct of a climate where there is a long, rigorous win- 
ter and it is not surprising that the ice is found at 
greater depths than in more southerly latitudes.^^ The 
depth to which the ice extends is, of course, determined 
by the depth to which the winter's cold can penetrate 
the soil. There is no doubt that the causes of this ice 
are local, that is, that it is due to the long prevailing 
low temperatures. 

The freezing wells of which the most conspicuous ex- 
amples are at Brandon, Owego, Decorah, and in Montana, 
seem also due to local causes and the ice is never far 
from the surface, that is, not over twenty meters; and 
apparently also it forms above the water horizons which 
supply the wells. 

The ice sheet on Mount Etna ^^ does not seem to 
be at any great depth. It apparently had a different 
origin from most subterranean ice masses, in that the 
snow probably fell first and was then covered by a flow 
of lava. It is, therefore, almost sui generis in its mode 
of formation, unless there are similar sheets on other 
volcanoes, which is probable in a country like Iceland, 

^^See Part III. : Alaska, page 166 ; Klondike, page 167 ; Kowak 
River, page 166 ; Kotzebue Sound, page 166. 
^^ See Part III., page 210. 



156 GLACI^RES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

and which is said to be the case in Tierra del Fuego.^^ 
But the original cause of the ice sheet on Etna was the 
same as all other subterranean ice masses, namely the 
cold of winter. 

Evaporation and Movements of Air. — The formation 
of subterranean ice is sometimes assigned partly to evap- 
oration or to expansion of the air. The theory is an 
old one, and both scientific and non-scientific men have 
advanced it.^^ 

I have already said that I believe it is the movements 
of the air which cause a cave to be a glaciere cave or a 
normal cave. When they act in such a way as to permit 
the cold air of winter to permeate a cave, we find low 
temperatures and ice ; when they do not, we find the 
temperature about the same as that of the ground and 
no ice. 

That the ice is not formed in apparently static caves, 
by movements of air producing evaporation, seems to 
me proved by what I have noticed in regard to the at- 
mosphere. The dryness or moistness of the air within 
a glaciere cave is coincident with the state of freezing 
or thawing of the cave. When I have visited a large cave 
in June, everything was frozen tight, there were no drips 

^^ See Part III., page 190. 

^^ Among those who have written that evaporation is a factor in the 
formation of subterranean ice, may be mentioned : Pictet, 1822 ; Scrope, 
1827 ; Reich, 1834 ; Pleischl, 1841 ; Murchison, 1845 ; Olmstead, 
1856; Hitchcock, 1861 ; White, 1870; Kirchhoff, 1876; Krauss, 
1895. 



THE CAUSES OF SUBTERRANEAN ICE. 1 57 

nor mushy ice, the air was relatively dry and the sensa- 
tion of cold not unpleasant. When I have visited a cave 
in August, the ice was soft and mushy, water was dripping 
from the roof, the atmosphere was moist, and the cold 
penetrating. It seems to me that the facts go to show 
that it is not evaporation which forms the ice, but the 
melting of the ice which fills the cave with moisture. If 
there are any draughts or movements of the atmos- 
phere when above freezing point, then their tendency is 
to vaporize the ice. 

The process of the formation of ice in relation to the 
atmosphere is as follows : the cold air permeates the 
cave and freezes up all the drip : the atmosphere be- 
comes dr}^: gradually warmer air gets in and the ice 
begins to melt : then the atmosphere gets charged slowly 
with the vapor of the melting ice. This process is the 
exact opposite of the formation of ice by evaporation ; 
it is the atmosphere which is made humid by the vapor- 
izing of the ice, and by the drip. When the air is thor- 
oughly saturated with the vapor, being scarcely renewed 
from outside and but a few degrees above freezing point, 
it undoubtedly retards evaporation, acts like a blanket 
and lessens the rate of melting of the ice.^ 

Everything I have personally observed in freezing 
windholes shows that in them also the cold of winter and 
not evaporation is the cause of the ice. They answer to 
the same tests as other glacieres, of geographical distri- 

^ See Part IV. : Thury, page 285 ; Fugger, page 296 ; Trouillet, 
page 298. 



158 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

bution and altitude, nearness of ice to the outside, ther- 
mometric observations, and dampness of the air when 
the ice melts. Equally with other glacieres, the move- 
ments of air in windholes do not depend on the pres- 
ence of ice, but the ice does depend on the movements 
of air and a water supply at the proper time. A proof 
that it is the cold of winter which makes the ice in 
windholes, is that the ice is always found at the lower 
extremity, for the reason that it is at that end that the 
cold air enters and to that end that the water gravi- 
tates. The reason that ice is more rarely found in wind- 
holes than in apparently static caves, is due to the move- 
ments of air. Unlike the caves where the heavy cold 
air preserves the ice by remaining pent up, as soon as 
the outside temperature rises the heavy cold air in wind- 
holes tumbles out at the lower opening and is replaced 
gradually by air at a higher temperature. This also 
flows out and when It is above freezing point. It natu- 
rally melts the ice and becomes humid : in fact, it vapor- 
izes the ice as it passes, and dissipates the moisture 
into the outer air. 

It Is, however, certain, that in caves with a tempera- 
ture some degrees above freezing point, when there is 
either running water or strong drips, evaporation may 
be, and sometimes undoubtedly is, a factor in lowering 
the temperature somewhat.^ As in some windholes there 

^See Part IV. : DeSaussure, page 274. See also Les AbimeSy 
1894, page 564- 



THE CAUSES OF SUBTERRANEAN ICE. 1 59 

is occasionally moisture on the rock surfaces where the 
air current passes, the evaporation from these surfaces 
doubtless lowers the temperature of the draughts, and 
it may be, also those of the rock surfaces, a little. 

Further observations, however, will be necessary in 
regard to evaporation underground, as the data are still 
insufficient to make absolutely positive statements.^^ I 
fail to see any evidence to show that evaporation ever 
lowers the temperature of draughts underground below 
freezing point, only that it may help to lower them to 
something less than they would otherwise be. Taking 
all the facts which I have myself observed, and all I 
have read of in the reports of others, my own conclusion 
is that we have no proof that evaporation underground 
is ever strong enough to produce ice. 

Time of Formation of Ice. — Everything I have seen 
points to the fact that ice begins to lorm in a cave as 
soon as the temperature of the cave has sunk below 
freezing point, whenever, from any cause, water gets 
into the cave. The cold may begin to penetrate caves 
as soon as outside frosts have occurred, that is in the 
fall months, about November ; and as soon as the tem- 
perature inside sinks below freezing point, ice will begin 

^^ Several observers consider evaporation as more or less of a factor 
in the production of cold underground. It is suggested also, that 
in certain cases, at high altitudes, evaporation tends to prevent the 
melting of the ice in windholes, but this is not proved, as yet. See 
Part IV. : De Saussure, page 274 ; Fugger, page 296 ; Trouillet, page 
298 ; Martel, page 300 ; Lohmann, page 302. 



l6o GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

to form, provided also that water gets into the cave, 
from rains or springs or any other source. 

In the mid-winter months, although there is then 
plent}' of cold, the water supply is generally lacking, as 
the outside moisture is mostly frozen up and the result 
is that the winter months are not those when the ice is 
mainly formed. Some is undoubtedly formed in certain 
caves whenever during the course of the winter a surface 
thaw outside furnishes water to the cave,^^ but in other 
cases this is not so and the ice does not appear before 
the spring. In all cases it is in the spring, before the 
cave has parted with its store of cold, and when both 
the air and the rock walls are chilled below freezinof 
point'" that the ice forms fastest. Then plent}' of water 
is furnished by the melting of the snows and the un- 
locking of the brooks, and also by early spring rains. 
All this surface water runs throuo^h the fissures into the 
still freezing cave and there becomes ice. Not only the 
air, but also the rock walls are chilled below freezing 
point, and as the rocks part slowly with the cold stored 
in them, this cold helps to freeze the water pouring In. 

The natural law In relation to time seems to be this : 
Ice mav be formed in caves as soon as the outside tem- 
perature sinks below freezing point. In some caves it 

^See Part III.: Chaux-les-Passavant, page 203; Saint-Georges, 
page 220. 

^ See Part IV.: Townson, page 275 ; Thur}-. page 2S5 : Troiiillet, 
page 297 ; Schwalbe, page 29S ; Terlanday, page 301 ; Kovarik, 
page 307. 



THE CAUSES OF SUBTERRANEAN ICE. l6l 

forms intermittently all through the cold months because 
there is a water supply. In other caves it only forms 
in the spring, because there is no water supply in the 
winter months. In all cases, however, the end of winter 
is the time when most of the ice is formed. 



PART III. 



LIST OF GLACIERES. 



LIST OF GLACIERES. 



68 



north america. 

Buried or Fossil Glaciers, North Greenland. 
(W. E. Meehan, Philadelphia Ledger, 1896.) — On Rob- 
ertson's Bay Is the plateau of the Verhoef Glacier, which 
is about 1 500 meters long and 400 meters wide, and stands 
back only a few meters from the edge of the sea. This 
plateau, both top and sides, is a mass of flourishing vege- 
tation, chiefly grass, which reaches above a man's knee. 
From among this verdure buttercups, poppies, cinquefoils 
and dandelions thrust their golden heads in wild profusion. 
Similar buried glaciers are found in many places along 
the fiords of North Greenland. 

Mr. Meehan gives a simple explanation in connection 
with the Verhoef Glacier. He says that this glacier for- 
merly extended out into the sea, and that while it moved 
forward, the clump moss, which struggles for existence 
in Greenland gorges, could do little more than hold its 
own. In course of time, from some unknown cause, the 
glacier receded to the point where it now discharges, the 
part in the water floating away in the shape of icebergs, 
and the part on the shore remaining stationary. This was 
the opportunity for the clump mosses. Caring nothing for 
the cold they crept slowly over the quiet mass of ice 

®® This list is necessarily incomplete, and only approximately accurate 
in many cases. 

(165) 



1 66 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

and made their way first in thin net-like layers, later in 
thick masses, till they reached the rocky shore. Year 
after year the mosses grew, the young plants trampling 
under-foot the older ; until the latter, rotting, turned into 
a rich mould. The seeds of grasses and flowers found 
their way to this, blown by the wind or carried on the 
feet of birds. The plateau now is a garden of green, 
gold and white. How long this will last it is impossible 
to say, as any time nature may unloose its hold, and 
the frozen river once more pour down into the bay. 

Subsoil Ice in Alaska. (I. C. Russell, A Joui^ney 
up the Yukon River, page 149, and Second Expedition 
to Mount Saint Elias, page 19.) — Professor Russell found 
ice covered by rocks and vegetation in several places in 
Alaska, especially along the southern edge of the Malas- 
pina Glacier and on the Yukon River. He gives the 
following interesting account in 1890 of these ice sheets : 
" Throughout the length of the Yukon, one is frequently 
reminded of the high latitude drained by the great river, 
by seeing strata of ice in the recently cut banks, beneath 
the dense layer of moss and roots forming the surface on 
which the forests grow. One may frequently find ice even 
on a hot summer's day, by scraping away the moss at his 
feet. In some instances the frozen layer has been pene- 
trated to the depth of twenty-five feet, but its full depth 
has never been ascertained. In the banks of some of the 
streams to the north of the lower Yukon, strata of ice over 
a hundred feet thick have been observed, and the indica- 



LIST OF GLACIERES. 1 67 

tions are that its total depth is considerably greater than 
the portion exposed. This subsoil ice is stagnant and 
without the characteristics of glaciers.'* 

Subsoil Ice in the Klondike Region. {^Philadelphia 
Ledger, December 30th, 1897.) — The Klondike mining 
country is covered with snow most of the year. The 
ground is frozen for ten or twelve meters in depth, down 
to bed rock. In some places the ground, which is pro- 
tected by a thick moss, is not thawed out by the sun in 
summer. The miner cuts off the moss with a shovel, 
and then builds a fire, which thaws out the ground for 
five or ten centimeters. He digs this out, rebuilds a 
fire, and then continues this process. 

Ice Cliffs on the Kowak River, Alaska. (Lieu- 
tenant J. C. Cantwell, National Geographic Magazine, 
October, 1896.) — On the shores of the Kowak River are a 
series of ice cliffs of from about 25 meters to 45 meters in 
height. On top of these ice cliffs is a layer of black silt- 
like soil some 2 meters in thickness, and from this springs 
a luxuriant growth of mosses, grass and Arctic shrubbery. 
The melted ice shows a residuum of fine dust, which while 
fresh emits a pungent odor. 

Subterranean Ice Sheet on Kotzebue Sound. (Otto 
von Kotzebue, Entdeckungsreise in die Siidsee, etc. Wei- 
mar, 1 82 1. Vol. IV., page 140.) — Dr. Eschholz discovered 
near Kotzebue Sound, in 18 16, a mass of ice more than 30 



1 68 GLACI^RES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

meters thick, and entirely covered with a layer at least 1 5 
centimeters thick of clay, sand, and earth, on which heavy, 
long grass was growing. In the ice and in the soil over- 
laying it, were many remains of extinct animals. On the 
side towards the ocean the ice was entirely bare, exposed 
to sun and air, and much of it was melting away in 
streamlets. 

Freezing Lava Caves, Washington. (R. W. Raymond, 
Overland Mo^itJdy, 3d November, 1869, page 421. Th. 
Kirchhoff, Reisebilder tend Skizzen aus America, 1876, 
vol. II., page 211. Philadelphia Ledger, September 25th, 
1899.) — These caves are distant about four hours from the 
foot of Mount Adams, and about 56 kilometers from the 
mouth of the White Salmon River, where it falls into the 
Columbia River. The caves are in basalt, and they are 
connected at both ends with the open air. Only a few of 
them contain any ice, which in the largest cave is about 
6 meters below the entrance, from which one descends 
by a ladder. The cave opens on one side and is some 
15 meters in depth, 6 meters or 8 meters in width and 
3 meters or 4 meters in height. This part contains the 
most ice. The other side gradually narrows from the en- 
trance, is longer, and reaches out through fallen rocks 
and rubbish to daylight. In the lower portion, there are 
a few ice stalactites and stalagmites : one a superb, trans- 
parent hillock, which rises nearly to the roof, is called 
the Iceberg. A strong draught flows into the cave in 
summer through the open arm. 



LIST OF GLACIERES. 1 69 

The following paragraphs from the Philadelphia Ledger 
probably refer to the same locality : — 

"• Ice for the cutting, and that in August and early in 
September, is a novelty not often found in regions as far 
south as the Columbia River basin ; but the novelty is 
enjoyed every year by people who visit the ice caves under 
the shadow of Mount Adams, about loo miles northeast 
of Portland. It is a very extensive region. Frank Mc- 
Farland, who has just returned from a six weeks' vacation 
camping trip there, gives an interesting account of its gen- 
eral make up. 

'' At the ice caves, which are six miles from Trout 
Lake, the stalactites are more beautiful and wonderful this 
year than ever before, and this was Mr. McFarland's fif- 
teenth trip there. He broke off and took to camp chunks 
of ice weighing lOO pounds. Pleasure parties who come to 
the lake use considerable of the ice for packing their trout 
to take home. All you have to do is to take a torch of 
pitch pine or a lantern, and go into the big caves and pack 
off all the ice you want. It is a sure crop, and never fails.'' 

Ice Spring in the Rocky Mountains, Oregon. (G. 
Gihhs, American yournal of Science and Arts, 1853, Second 
Series, vol. XV., page 146.) — The Ice Spring is about 60 
kilometers from the South Pass to the right of the Sweet- 
water River. It is situated in a low marshy swale, where 
the ground is filled with springs ; and about 60 centimeters 
below the turf is a sheet of horizontal ice, some 10 centi- 
meters to 30 centimeters thick, lasting throughout the 



I JO GL.\CIERES OR FREEZING CA\'ERNS. 

year. The ice is clear and Is disposed in hexagonal 
prisms : it has a shghtly saline taste, the ground above it 
being impregnated with salt and the water near by tasting 
of sulphur. 

Freezing Lava Caves in Modoc County. California. 
[^Dispatch, Frankford, Pennsylvania. 2 2d Januan.', 1S97, 
reprinted from another paper.) — The lava beds, where the 
Modoc Indians made their last stand against the United 
States troops, are described as an immense field of lava 
covered with a beautiful forest of conifers. Numerous 
caves of varving shapes and dimensions are scattered 
throuc^hout these lava beds. Some are mere covert wavs, 
with an arch of stone thrown over them ; others are im- 
mense chambers some meters from the surface: another 
kind sinks deeply and may be in a series of chambers 
united by a corridor that opens at the surface : while 
another kind seems to £:o directlv to the centre of the 
earth without stopping. Some of these caves contain ice 
and from them the Modoc s drew their water supply while 
besieged by the troops. Judging from what is reported 
of the caves the quantit}' of ice in them must be large. 
The thermometer in winter in the region is said to go 
as low as — 30- C. 

Freezing Lava Beds near Medicine Lake. Siskiyou 
Counts*, Northern California. (^L S. Baker. Sierra 
Chib Bulletin, 1S99. \'ol. II., page 318.) — "One other fea- 
ture of the lava rei2:ion must be mentioned — the ice caves. 

o 



LIST OF GLACIERES. 171 

There are several of these known, and ver}^ likely many 
more remain undiscovered. Those located along the edge 
of the lava, near the cinder cone, I have known to contain 
ice and water as late as August. The largest I have 
seen is on the Mayfield Road, about twenty miles east of 
Bartles. It is situated in the barren lava, and in one of 
the warmest localities of the region, — and there are few 
cool spots in the lava anywhere. One enters the cave by 
crawling down a hole none too large. The instant the 
interior is reached the temperature falls in a surprising 
way. Not more than ten feet below the surface of the 
hot rocks is a bed of ice, covered by a foot or so of ice 
water. The body of ice was perhaps twelve or fifteen 
feet long, by five feet across in the widest places. This 
cave is formed by a fissure that extends a distance of 
twenty miles from the ice cave to Pittville, and nearly 
coincides with the 4000 foot level, as shown in the map. 
Along the southeastern half of this earth fissure the south- 
west wall has faulted, leaving a cliff, which, in places, must 
be nearly 200 feet high." 

Freezing Shafts, Montana. — Mr. Robert Butler, of 
San Jose, Cal., has given me much information about gla- 
cieres in Montana. He visited one miners' shaft which is 
situated about 80 kilometers up the Rosebud River from 
Rosebud Station on the Northern Pacific R. R., and about 
10 kilometers northeast of the Cheyenne Indian Agency. 
It is on the north slope of the Little Wolf Mountains, near 
the summit, at the head of Greenleaf Creek. The canyon 



172 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

and surrounding slopes are covered with a dense growth 
of pine. The rock has the appearance of scoriae caused 
by the burning of immense beds of coal in recent geo- 
logical times. The rock is broken into comparatively 
small pieces. The altitude is some 1200 meters. The 
forest, the volcanic ash and the altitude, besides the loose 
rock formation, makes this place a natural ice house. 
Ten or twelve years ago three prospectors, looking for 
silver, sunk a shaft here. At a depth of about 4 meters 
it began to grow cold, and at 6 meters they found ice 
and imagined they could feel an upward draught. Being 
ignorant and superstitious, they became frightened and 
abandoned the shaft. During the winter, the snow fills 
the shaft half full of ice, which then remains over through 
the summer. There is a general report and belief among 
those who have visited the well, that it freezes in summer 
and thaws in winter. There are thousands of mining 
shafts in Montana, and if they are on the north slope 
of a mountain of considerable altitude and under a 
dense forest and not too deep, they generally have ice at 
the bottom during the summer. It is also said to be noth- 
ing new for a miner in following crevices to find them 
filled with ice, especially if near the surface on the north 
slope of a mountain. 

Freezing Cave, Fergus County, Montana. — Mr. 
Robert Butler, of San Jose, Cal., visited this place, which 
is about 35 kilometers southeast of Lewistown. It is on 
the north side of a butte. Masses of ice and great icicles 



LIST OF GLACIERES. 1 73 

form in some parts of the cave in such quantities during 
the latter part of winter that the cave furnishes ice for 
cooling the drinking water for several dozen families. 
During July and August the people come from some 
distance around to get the ice. The people in the neigh- 
borhood believe that the ice forms in summer and thaws 
away in winter. They also speak of the ever upward 
draught of cold air coming possibly from some great 
hidden cavern in the lower recesses of the mountain. 

Freezing Well at Horse Plains, Montana. (Levi 
Allen, Scientific American, New Series, 27th October, 
1883.) — The well is described as 13.60 meters deep. It is 
dug through solid gravel, and in sinking it there was 
encountered, at a depth of 10.60 meters, a current of 
air strong enough to blow out a candle. It began to 
freeze in September, 1882, and in November it was 
frozen solid. 

Freezing Silver Mine, Bighorn County, Wyoming. — 
This place is in the Sunlight Basin of the Shoshone 
Mountains. Mr. William Worrell Wagner, of Philadelphia, 
informs me that he visited it in August, 1897. It is a 
silver mine or tunnel, running straight into the mountain 
for about 60 meters, at an altitude of about 3300 meters. 
The peaks of the Teton range were in sight from the 
mouth of the tunnel. For the first half of the way in, a 
good many icicles were hanging from the rocks. The last 
half of the tunnel was thickly coated with ice and looked 



174 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

like a cold storage plant. Snow disappears on the rocks 
outside about June, and begins to fall again in September, 
so that Mr. Wagner's visit was at about the hottest time 
of the year. Mr. Wagner presented the meat of a bull 
wapiti he had shot to the miners, and they stored it in 
the mine as if it had been an artificial refrigerator. 

Rifts of Ice, Mount McClellan, Colorado. (Edward 
L. Berthoud, Ameincan your7ial of Science and Arts. Third 
Series, 1876, vol. XL, page 108.) — Near the summit of 
Mount McClellan, is the Centennial Lode, which runs into 
the mountain, at an altitude of about 3900 meters. Inter- 
calated in the mineral vein are three or four well defined 
veins of solid ice parallel with the bedding of the rock 
and filling all its inner side-cracks and fissures. The 
same frozen substratum is found in two other lodes near 
by on the same mountain. Nothing of the kind is known 
on other Colorado mountains. The soil is loose and 
largely made up of rocky debris, which shows that the 
ice is probably due to local causes. 

Freezing Tunnel on the Hagerman Pass, Colorado. 
{Philadelphia Press, October i6th, 1897.) — The Hager- 
man Pass Railroad line is said to have been abandoned 
after the completion of the Busk-Ivanhoe tunnel, but to 
have been rebuilt. The Hagerman tunnel for a distance 
of over 700 meters was filled with solid ice, and it required 
blasting with dynamite, and a month's continuous labor, 
day and night, to dig the ice out. 



list of glacieres. 175 

Freezing Cavern in Cow Mountain, Colorado. 
{Post Dispatch, St. Louis, Mo., July 13th, 1897, and Sep- 
tember 5th, 1897. Mail Order Monthly, St. Paul, Minn., 
October, 1899.) — The cave was discovered by parties do- 
ing assessment work on a group of claims. A man was 
picking in a three meter hole when he struck his pick 
into an opening, which was gradually enlarged and 
showed a deep pit underneath. The men got a rope 
and descended into an immense cavern full of ice. 
Later exploration led to a small hall, some 5 meters in 
diameter, full of icicles. From here a fissure led into a 
second rock chamber larger than the first. A small hole 
in the floor at an angle of some 45° gave access to a 
third and larger hall, about 25 meters by 40 meters. Great 
masses of ice were found in this, also a small lake, about 
1 2 meters by 20 meters. " Some who have visited the 
wonderful discovery are of the opinion that it is a great 
cave or fissure in a glacier which for centuries has been 
slowly making its way down from Pike's Peak and whose 
waters are now feeding the Arkansas River.'* 

Windhole, Arizona. [Christian Herald, March 24th, 
1897.) — M^- Cofman, while drilling a well on his place, is 
said to have opened a windhole from which the escaping 
air current was strong enough to blow off the hats of the 
men who were recovering the lost drill. Some days the 
air escapes with such force that pebbles the size of peas 
are thrown up, accompanied by a sound much like the 
distant bellowing of a fog horn. Again for days there will 



1/6 GLAClfeRES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

be a suction current, unaccompanied by sound, in which the 
current of air passes into the earth with somewhat less 
force than when escaping, and any Hght object, as a feather 
or a piece of paper, will be immediately sucked in. The 
account is probably exaggerated. 

Freezing Lava Cave near Flagstaff, Arizona. — Pro- 
fessor W. B. Scott of Princeton University told me of 
this cave, which he had not visited himself. It lies 14.5 
kilometers south of Flagstaff, on the Mesa table land, at 
an altitude of about 2000 meters. It was described to 
Professor Scott as a double cave, with two floors, one over 
the other, the lower containing the most ice. It is in lava, 
and can only be entered by crawling in on hands and 
knees. 

Freezing Cave or Gorge, White Mountains, Ari- 
zona. — Mr. Frank Hamilton Cushing has told me of this 
place. It is a cleft among lava rock, which being roofed at 
the further end, might be described as a cave. In this the 
ice remains until June or July, much later than anywhere 
else in the neighborhood. The Zuni Indians worship be- 
fore this, calling the ice the breath of the Gods, the snow 
they consider as a sort of down. The region is arid, 
which makes any water precious, and this fact has de- 
veloped the element of mysticism about snow and ice 
among the Indians. 

Freezing Cave near Galena, Black Hills, South 
Dakota. (Miss L. A. Owen, Cave Regions of the Ozarks 



LIST OF GLACIERES. 1 77 

and Black Hills. Cincinnati, 1898, page 209): ''At Galena, 
a new mining town of golden promise, there is reported to 
be an Ice Cave, where ice forms at all seasons, and during 
the warm weather is a source of comfort and pleasure to 
the miners." 

WiNDHOLES IN THE OzARK MOUNTAINS, MISSOURI. Mr. 

H. F. Brinckerhofif, of Aurora, Mo., informs me that there 
are a number of cold air current caves in the Ozark Moun- 
tain region. One of them is some 19 kilometers south of 
Aurora, Lawrence County, and is used for cold storage in 
summer. There is a cave in a limestone bluff about 15 
meters above a river, and in the rear is this windhole, 
which is an opening about 30 centimeters high and 3 
meters wide. A strong current of air comes out from it in 
summer, and the hotter the air outside, the stronger is the 
outward coming current. In winter the current is re- 
versed. The outward current is so strong in very hot 
weather that a handkerchief held in it is straightened out 
to an angle of about 45°. 

Freezing Cave and Well at Decorah, Iowa. De- 
scribed in Part I. (Dr. C. A. White, Report of Geological 
Survey of State of Iowa, 1870, vol. I., page 80. A. F. 
Kovarik, Scientific American Supplement, No. .1195, ^^' 
vember 26th, 1898, pages 19,158, 19,159). 

On June ist, 1869, Dr. White found the ice dry and 
well frozen, and he thought it was then accumulating. The 
cave was cool and apparently dry, and no strong air cur- 
rent was passing through. 



178 



GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 



Mr. Alois F. Kovarik, of the Decorah Institute, has 
made a valuable series of observations about the Decorah 
Cave. The temperatures he observed were the following: 



IN THE VALLEY, 

SHADE. DIVISION. 



July I, 1897 +33.3° 

+21.1° 

+32.2° 

+32.2° 

+33.9° 

+24.0° 

+ 10.0° 

— 2.2° 



( ( 


27, - 


Aug. 


14, " 


Sept. 


3, " 


( ( 


18, - 


Oct. 


16, " 


i ( 


30, " 


Dec. 


II, - 


Jan. 


8, 1898 


( ( 


22, ** 


Feb. 


26, - 


March 


12, - 


< ( 


26, - 


April 


16, - 


i i 


30, '' 


May 


28, - 


June 


9, " 


( < 


18, - 


July 


16, - 



— 0.0" 

- 5.0° 

_ 0.0° 

+ 2.8° 

+ 8.8° 
+ 25.6° 

+ 13.9° 
+ 17.2° 
+ 25.0° 
+ 22.3° 
+ 35.0° 



+ 2.2° 

+ 5.0° 

+ 5.8° 

+ 7.2° 

+ 8.6° 
+ 10.0° 

+ 7.2° 

- 2.7° 

- 2.7° 
_ 6.1° 
_ 6.6° 

- 1.6° 

- 1.7° 

- 1.4° 
+ 1.1° 

+ 1.7° 

+ 1.7° 

+ 1.7° 

+ 7.2° 



LOCUS 
GLACIALIS. 

0.0° 



0.0° 

+ 3.1'' 
+ 3.1° 

+ 6.1° 

+ 8.3° 

+ 4.7' 
-1.1° 

-3.9° 
-3.9° 
-6.6° 

-2.7° 
-1.6° 
+ 1.1° 
— 1.1° 
-0.3° 
-0.3° 

_0.2° 
0.0° 



END. 
0.0° 
0.0° 
0.0° 

+ 8.3° 
+ 8.3° 

+ 8.3° 

+ 5.0° 

— 2.0° 

0.0° 

-3.9° 
-5.0° 

-2.7° 

-1.1° 

-1.1° 

-1.1° 

0.0° 

0.0° 

0.0° 

+ 2.2° 



On the I St of July, 1897, ^ ^^^^ breeze was noticed 
coming from the cave to a distance of at least 30 meters. 
At the entrance the breeze was strong enough to blow 
out a candle. This breeze was not noticed at other 
times. From December to February inclusive, on the 
contrary, the breeze was reversed. From July to October, 
1897, the walls of the cave were moist. From October 
to February they were dry. In February frost began to 



LIST OF GLACIERES. 1/9 

appear on the walls. On March 12th, 1898, the walls 
were covered with frost. The ice appeared at a spot 
nearly at the end of the cave on the 26th of March, 1898. 
At a place about 6.50 meters nearer the entrance, how- 
ever, is where most ice forms. This place Mr. Kovarik 
calls Locus Glacialis. The ice appeared here about the 
29th of May, 1898. It increased rapidly up to June 12th, 
when it was at its maximum, and was about two meters 
in width. It generally covers the north wall from top 
to base. The greatest thickness in 1898 was 29 centi- 
meters. 

The temperature which Mr. Kovarik recorded on the 
1 6th of April at Locus Glacialis of ^ i.i seems an anom- 
alous one. On writing to him he sent me the following 
explanation: "April i6th, after I left the thermometer at 
Locus Glacialis the usual time, I noticed that it registered 
+ 1.1° C. It seemed singular, for at both the Division 
and the End, the thermometer registered considerably 
lower. I left the thermometer at its place for about an 
hour longer, and noticed then that it did not register 
differently. I would suggest this explanation : This is 
true about water that upon freezing it gives off its latent 
heat. Now on April i6th some water dripped into the 
cave on the wall near where the thermometer was, about 
1.50 meters from the floor. The amount of water was very 
small, but as it came in contact with the cold wall it began 
to give out its latent heat which affected the close by 
thermometer. The temperature of the rock was without 
doubt between — i.° and — 3°." 



l8o GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

Freezing Cavern at Brainard, Iowa. (Alois F. Ko- 
varik, Decorah Public Opinio7i, September 20th, 1899.) — 
This little cave is situated on the north side of a hill 
about 1.5 kilometers northwest of Brainard. It is about 
4.50 meters deep. On June loth, 1899, Mr. Kovarik 
found the floor and walls covered with ice. The tem- 
perature was 0° C. The owner claims to have taken 
enough ice out of it on July 4th, 1897, ^^ freeze cream. 

Freezing Cave near Elkinsville, Brown County, 
Indiana. (Clipping from a western newspaper, 1896.) — 
The entrance is said to be overlapped by trees and to 
resemble a mine shaft. The winding way leads to a 
hollow some 15 meters below the surface, resembling a 
broad vaulted corridor, which is known to the natives as 
the devil's chamber and where the temperature is low. 
From this point several galleries lead further in, and from 
one of them comes a blast of icy cold air. This passage 
is similar to the one at the entrance to the cave, but after 
a few meters frost is visible, and further on it is thick on 
all sides, like the crust that is formed on the pipes of an 
ice plant. The narrow way leads to a big chamber, known 
as the ice vault. In this dome, which is fully 30 meters in 
width, the ice forms a large stalagmite and is of unknown 

depth. 

» 

Freezing Gully on Mount Abraham, Maine. (Jackson, 
Report of the Geology of Mame, 1839, III.) — Ice was found 
in June at an altitude of 1032 meters among the boulders 
in one of the gullies of Mount Abraham. 




FREEZING CAVERN AT BRAINARD. 

From a Photograph by Mr. A. F. Kovarik. 



LIST OF GLACIERES. l8l 

Subterranean Ice in King's Ravine, Mount Adams, 
New Hampshire. — Described in Part I., page i. 

Ice Gulch on Crescent Mountain, Randolph, New 
Hampshire. — Described in Part I., page S^. 

Ice in a Hole at Dixville Notch, New Hampshire. — 
Mr. John Ritchie, Jr., of Boston, has examined this place, 
which he is sure is a refrigerator. It is in a hole north of 
the cliff and near its top. 

Ice on Mount Garfield, New Hampshire. — Mr. John 
Ritchie, Jr., informs me that ice was discovered among the 
boulders on the summit of Mount Garfield during the 
summer of 1897. 

Freezing Talus near Rumney, New Hampshire. — De- 
scribed in Part I., page 85. 

Freezing Talus near North Woodstock, New Hamp- 
shire. — Mr. John Ritchie, Jr., has examined this locality. 
He thinks the ice was gone in July, but judges it to be on 
the level of an old talus and a couple of meters down. 

Freezing Well at Lyman, Grafton County, New 
Hampshire. (Geology of Vermont, 1861, I., page 197.) — A 
well in that town is reported as having been frozen solid 
in June, 181 6, at a depth of about 2.60 meters from the 
surface. 



1 82 GLACIl^RES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

Icy Wells at THE Foot of Mount Mansfield, Vermont. 
(N. M. Lowe, Science Observer, vol. II., page 58.) — These 
are described as being really *' incipient caves." 

Freezing Cave near Manchester, Vermont. — De- 
scribed in Part I., page 76. 

Ice Bed of Wallingford, Rutland County, Vermont. 
Described in Parti., page 99. (S. Pearl Lathrop, American 
yournal of Science and Arts, 1844, XLVL, page 331.) — 
Dr. Lathrop says that ice has been found at the Ice Bed 
as late as September. 

Freezing Wells at Brandon, Vermont. Described in 
Part I., page "]"]. [Geology of Vermont, 1861, vol. I., page 
192.) — Mr. Hager says that the v^ell was dug into a mass 
of sand and gravel, of the kind known as modified drift. 
The gravel was frozen at the time of digging. The Boston 
Natural History Society, in 1859, sank two wells, .one 21 
meters southeast of the original one, the other 21 meters 
northwest. The first was 10 meters in depth and did not 
reach ice ; the second was 1 1 meters in depth, and came 
to the layer of frozen gravel. 

Cave near Brandon, Vermont. {^Geology of Verm^ont, 
1 86 1, vol. I., page 197.) — Mr. Hager heard that about 3 
kilometers north of Brandon village was a cavern, in a 
hill, in which ice is found most of the summer. 

Icy Gulf near Great Barrington, Massachusetts. — 
Mentioned in Part I., page 99. 



LIST OF GLACIERES. 1 83 

Icy Glen near Stockbridge, Massachusetts. — De- 
scribed in Part I., page 75. 

The Snow Hole, New York: near Williamstown, 
Massachusetts. Described in Part I., page 98. (Dewey, 
American journal of Science and Arts ^ 181 9, vol. I., page 
340; and 1822, vol. V., page 398.) — Mr. Dewey found, in 
June, snow 2 meters deep on ice of unknown depth. On 
his second visit he found less ice and snow than on his 
first visit, as the trees in the neighborhood had been 
cut down. 

Glaciere near Williamstown, Massachusetts. — De- 
scribed in Part I., page loi. 

Freezing Well near Ware, Massachusetts. — (Geol- 
ogy of Vermont, 1861, vol. I., page 197.) — Depth 11. 5 
meters. This is in a sand and gravel formation much 
like that at Brandon, except that there is less clay, and 
that none of the pebbles are limestone. 

WOLFSHOLLOW NEAR SALISBURY, CONNECTICUT. (C. A. 

Lee, Am^erican fournal of Science and Arts, 1824, vol. 
VIII., page 254.) — In the eastern portion of the township, 
at an altitude of about 800 meters, is a chasm about 100 
meters long, 18 meters deep and 12 meters wide. It 
is in mica-slate, and is sheltered by large trees. At the 
bottom at one end is a spring of cold water and a cave 
of considerable extent, in which ice and snow is found 
the greater part of the year. 



184 glacieres or freezing caverns. 

Natural Ice House, near Meriden, Connecticut. 
(Benjamin Silliman, Americaii Journal of Science afid 
A7^ts, 1822, vol. IV., page 174.) — It lies between New 
Haven and Hartford, about 32 kilometers from the sea, 
at an altitude of about 60 meters. The ice is found in 
a narrow defile of perpendicular trap rock, at the bottom 
filled with broken stones. The defile is so placed that in 
summer the sun only shines into it for about an hour 
each day; it is also well protected by surrounding trees, 
the leaves from which form beds at the bottom among 
the rocks and help to protect the ice. 

Natural Ice House of Northford, Connecticut. 
(Benjamin Silliman, American Journal of Science and 
Arts, 1822, vol. IV., page 177.) — About 11 kilometers from 
New Haven on the Middletown road between Branford 
and Northford, is a gorge where ice remains throughout 
the year. In this case the ice is mixed with a consider- 
able quantity of leaves and dirt; it has sometimes been 
brought to New Haven. 

Ice in an Old Iron Mine, near Port Henry, Lake 
Champlain. (^Geology of Vermont, 1861, vol. I., page 
199.) — Ice was found during the summer at a depth of 
from 15 meters to 30 meters, and a current of cold air 
was issuing from the opening. There seems to be more 
than one opening to the mine. 

Freezing Talus on Lower Ausable Pond, Essex 
County, New York. — Described in Part I., page 79. 



list of glacieres. 1 85 

Freezing Talus at the South Base of the Giant of 
THE Valley, Essex County, New York. — Described in 
Part I., page 8i. 

Freezing Boulder Talus, Indian Pass, New York. 
See Part I., page S^. 

Freezing Boulder Talus, Avalanche Pass, New 
York. — See Part I., page S^,. 

Freezing Cave near Carlisle, New York. — See 
Part I., page 93. 

Ice among the Catskill Mountains, New York. — 
Mr. George Brinton Phillips informs me that he has 
seen subterranean ice in August among boulders in a 
gorge in the Catskills near the Stony Cloves road, start- 
ing out from Haines' Falls. The people in the neigh- 
borhood speak of the place as an ice cave. 

Gorge in the Shawangunk Mountains, near El- 
lenville, Ulster County, New York. Described in 
Part I., page 91. (Heilprin, Around the World, 1894, P^g^ 
194.) — Professor Heilprin found in July a mass of ice 
measuring about thirty meters in length and i meter in 
depth. The thermometer near the ice read about 1° C. 
above freezing point, the day being hot. Icicles hung 
from the ledges on the side of the gorge. 

Freezing Gorge at Sam's Point, New York. — See 
Part I., page 93. 



1 86 glacieres or freezing caverns. 

Ice Deposits and Windholes at Watertown, New 
York. — Described in Part I., page 86. 

Freezing Well near Tioga, New York. — Depth, 23 
meters. No information. 

Freezing Well near Prattsburg, New York. — Depth, 
6.5 meters. No information. 

Freezing Well near Owego, New York. Described 
in Part I., page 74. (D. O. Macomber, A7nerica7i Journal of 
Arts and Sciences, 1839, vol. XXXVI., page 184. Well's 
A7inual of Scientific Discovery, 1856, page 190.) — The 
thermometer is said to have stood at — 1.2° at the bot- 
tom of the biggest well when it registered — 20° out- 
side. When a candle was let down, the flame became 
agitated and was thrown in one direction at the depth 
of 9 meters ; at the bottom the flame was still, but soon 
died out. Large masses of ice were found in the big- 
gest well as late as July, and the men who made the 
well were forced to put on thick clothing in June, and 
even so could not work for more than two hours at a 
time. 

Cave in the Panama Rocks, Chautauqua, New York. 
The Rev. Horace C. Hovey informs me that he has been 
in a small cave in this locality, and that he found ice in it. 

Cave in Sussex County, New, Jersey. — A clipping from 
a newspaper, with neither name nor date, says that new 
ice is found daily on the land of Peter Feather, in the 
mouth of an unexplored cavern. A small stream of water 



LIST OF GLACIERES. 1 87 

runs out of the cavern and forms a pool at the opening, 
and here it is that the ice forms. Enough has been taken 
in one day to freeze two cans of ice cream. A cold 
draught of air issues continuously from the cavern. 

Hole Containing Ice on Blue Mountain, NE\y Jersey. 
Reported ; no information. 

Gorge Containing Ice on Bald Eagle Mountain, 
Clinton County, Pennsylvania. — Mr. Henry Chapman 
Mercer, of Doylestown, learned of the existence of this 
gorge during the summer of 1897. ^^ is near the village 
of McElhatten, in the neighborhood of Lock Haven, and is 
some 3 kilometers distant from the Susquehanna River. 
Ice is said to remain over during the entire summer. 

Freezing Cave and Windholes near Farrandsville, 
Clinton County, Pennsylvania. — Described in Part I., 

page 93. 

* 

Underground Ice Formations, Sullivan County, 
Pennsylvania, on the southwestern borders of Ly- 
coming County. — Mr. W. Coleman Hall of Philadelphia, 
about twenty years ago, found ice in two or three 
places, on Bear Creek, north of Muncy Creek, about 
25 kilometers north of the Susquehanna River, and 
southwest of Eagles Mere. The ice was under rocks, 
in what may be described as limestone sinks. Since 
the destruction of the forest, the ice has become less 
abundant, if indeed any still forms. 



1 88 glacieres or freezing caverns. 

Glacieres in Abandoned Coal Mines near Summit, 
Carbon County, Pennsylvania. — Described in Part I., 
page 95- 

Ice Cave Railroad Station, Luzerne County, Penn- 
sylvania. On the Bowman Creek branch of the Lehigh 
Valley R. R. — Mr. F. Holschuh, agent at Luzerne, in- 
forms me that about 2 kilometers from Ice Cave Station 
is a little waterfall on the side of a mountain which was 
formerly covered with dense forest. A short distance be- 
low the fall, a large hollow place has been worn out of 
the rocks by the action of the water. The overhanging 
rocks give this almost the appearance of a cave. While 
the forest was still thick and when the winter was cold, 
ice would form under these rocks and would not disap- 
pear until summer was well advanced. The station was 
called Ice Cave on account of this place. 

Hole Containing Ice at Millerstown, Pennsylva- 
nia. — Reported; no information. 

Freezing Talus at Spruce Creek, Huntingdon 
County, Pennsylvania. Described in Part I., page 90. 
The Philadelphia Ledger of July 6th, 1896, states that 
around the boulders where the ice lies, there are found 
varieties of plants strongly arctic in character. 

Ice Mountain, Hampshire County, Virginia. (C. B. 
Hayden, American Journal of Science and Arts, 1843, 



LIST OF GLACIERES. 1 89 

vol. XLV., page 78.) — It lies on the North River, near 
the road leading from Winchester to Romney, at an alti- 
tude of from about 220 meters to 240 meters. One 
side of the hill is entirely composed of loose stones, 
among which an abundance of ice is found at all times, 
although the sun shines on the upper surface of the 
stones from ten in the morning until sunset. The ice 
is regularly used in summer by the people near by. 
Constant and strong air currents issue from the crev- 
ices in the rocks. Similar, but smaller accumulations, 
are said to occur in the same county. Mrs. George B. 
Balch visited the Ice Mountain in August, 1878. She 
saw no ice, but the air under the stones was very cold. 

Blowing Cave, Bath County, Virginia. — Mrs. Hor- 
ace Jayne informs me that there is a blowing cave near 
the Cowpasture River, about half way on the old stage 
road between Millboro and Warm Springs. A draught 
flows out from it, strong enough to blow the grass about, 
three or four meters away. The draught is cold, per- 
haps abnormally so. The cave has not yet been ex- 
plored. 

SOUTH AMERICA. 

Ice Sheets on Mount Chimborazo. (A. von Hum- 
boldt, Travels to the Equinoctial Regions, London, 1814, 
vol. I., page 156.) — '* On Chimborazo, enormous heaps 
of ice are found covered with sand, and in the same 
manner as at the Peak [of Teneriffe] far below the 
inferior limit of the perpetual snows." 



190 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

TiERRA DEL FuEGO. (A. Winchel, Walks and Talks, 
1898, page 122.) — *' On Tierra del Fuego ice and lava 
are found interstratified for a great depth, each winter's 
snow being covered by a new lava sheet." 

TENERIFFE. 

La Cueva de la Nieve or del Hielo. (Humboldt, 
Travels to the Equinoctial Regio7is, 1814, vol. I., pages 154, 
156. C. Piazzi Smyth, Teneriffe, an Astronomer s Ex- 
perimeiit, 1858, page 348.) — La Cueva de la Nieve lies 
at an altitude of 3267 meters in the Malpays on the 
Peak of Teneriffe, just below the snow line. It is in 
obsidian. The entrance is 3.6 meters high and 2.7 me- 
ters broad. The grotto is 36 meters long, 6 meters 
wide, and 4 meters high. The descent into the cave is 
so steep that it is necessar}^ to be lowered by ropes. 
Professor Smyth found in July an ice floor about 60 
centimeters thick which was covered with water. A 
good deal of snow was lying near the mouth of the 
cave. The walls were covered with ice and icicles and 
a few small ice cones rose on the ice floor. 

ICELAND. 

The Surtshellir or Cave of Surtur. (Olafsen and 
Povelsen, Voyage en Islande, Paris, 1802. Henderson, 
Iceland, 1819, 2d ed., page 420. Guimard, Voyage en 
Isla7ide, page 481.) — The Surtshellir lies in the volcanic 
waste of Westisland, and is in lava which has flowed from 
the Bald Jokul. The approach is through an open chasm. 



LIST OF GLACIERES. I9I 

The length of the cave is 1534 meters, with an average 
width of from 15 meters to 17 meters, and a nearly uni- 
form height of from 9 meters to 1 1 meters. In four 
places the roof is broken and allows daylight to enter. A 
great deal of ice is sometimes found in the cave, in the 
shape of an ice floor, transparent icy pillars, hanging icy 
pendants, and columns and arches of ice along the walls. 
Some of the pillars have been found 2.50 meters high. 

KuTLAGAYA. (A. Wiuchel, Walks and Talks, 1898, 
page 122.) — ''In i860 the crater of the mountain Kutla- 
gaya, in Iceland, hurled out simultaneously into the air 
lumps of lava and ice, all intermingled together." 

SCANDINAVIA. 

Ice in the Mines of Nordmark. (Jars, Voyages 
Metallurgiques, 1774, page 105.) — 13 kilometers north 
of Philipstadt, Wermeland, Sweden, a number of holes 
were dug, some to a depth of 120 meters. Ice of some 
thickness formed in some of these towards the end of 
winter, and lasted until about September, despite the 
fires of the workmen. 

Persberg Iron Mines, Sweden. (J. Prestwich, Col- 
lected papers, etc., on page 206, quotes Dr. Clark's Travels 
in Scandinavia^ — Ice is said to have been found on the 
sides and bottom of the mine to a depth of about 135 
meters. 



192 GLACI^RES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

Ice Caves Reported in Norway, — I was told in Nor- 
way that some of the caves In the mountains near the 
Swartlsen ice field contained ice, but I do not know 
whether this is true. I suspect that there are glacier ice 
caves which have given rise to this report. 

ENGLAND. 

Helvellyn, Cumberland. (Wordsworth, Fidelity^ — 
The following verses were pointed out t6 me by Mr. 
Bunford Samuel. As far as I know they are the only 
poetry about glacieres : — 

* ' It was a cove, a huge recess 
That keeps, till June, December's snow ; 
A lofty precipice in front, 
A silent tarn below ! 
Far in the bosom of Helvellyn, 
Remote from public road or dwelling 
Pathway or cultivated land 
From trace of human foot or hand. ' ' 

Ice in an Old Copper Mine, Cumberland. (J. Clifford 
Ward, Nature y vol. XL, page 310.) — Ice reported as a 
rare occurrence. 

LuDCHURCH Chasm, Staffordshire. (R. K. Dent and 
Joseph Hill's Historic Staffordshire, quote Dr. Plot, 
1686.) — Mr. Bunford Samuel called my attention to this 
book, in which Dr. Plot is quoted as saying that as late as 
the 17th of July, snow has been found in Ludchurch 
Chasm. Messrs. Dent and Hill do not mention anything 
of the kind as occurring now. 



LIST OF GLACIERES. 1 93 

Blowing Cave in Denbighshire, Wales. — A news- 
paper cutting says that there are such strong eruptions of 
winds from a cave in this neighborhood as to toss back to 
a great height in the air any article of apparel thrown in. 

Tin Croft Mine, Cornwall. (J. Prestwich, Collected 
papers, etc., page 206, quotes Mr. Moyle.) — Ice has been 
found in abundance in this mine at a depth of nearly 100 
meters. 

CENTRAL EUROPE. 

Glaciere de Chaux-les-Passavant. Described in 
Part I., page 8. (Poissenot, Nouvelles Histoires Trag- 
iques de Benigne Poissenot^ licencie aux lots, A Paris, 
chez Guillaume Bichon, rue S. Jacques, a V ens eigne du 
Bichot, 1^86, avec privilege du Roy^ pages 436-453. Gol- 
lut, Les Memoires historiques de la Repub. Sequanoise, et 
des princes de la P'ranche Comte de Bourgogne, par M, 
Lois Gollut, Advocat au Parlement de Dole; A Dole, 
15^2. Trouillet, Memoires de la Societe d' Emulation du 
Doubs, 188^. Girardot, Memoires de la Societe d' Emula- 
tion du Doubs, 1886.) 

The earliest notice of a glaciere which I have been 
able to find is in the shape of a letter giving an ac- 
count of a visit to the Glaciere de Chaux-les-Passavant 
in 1584, by Benigne Poissenot, a French lawyer. The 
account, which I have translated as literally as possible, 
is in a special chapter, as follows : — 

'* Sir : — Since our separation, I have had this pleasure 
{heut) to hear news of you only once, having found 



194 GLACI^RES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

your brother in Paris ; who, having assured me of your 
good health (dispositio}i), informed me of how since we 
had seen each other you had travelled to Italy, even 
as far as Greece, of which you had seen a large portion : 
and that sound and safe, after so long a journey, you 
had reappeared and landed at Havre de Grace where 
you wished to go, that is to say at home. All the 
pleasure which a friend can receive, knowing the affairs 
of another self, joined to such a happy result, seized my 
heart, at the recital of such agreeable news : and I did 
not fail shortly after, to write you amply all which had 
happened to me since I left you until my return to 
France : congratulating you at having escaped from ma- 
rine abysses and perilous passages on land, on which 
travellers are often constrained to risk their life. From 
this time, I have always stayed in Paris or in the neigh- 
borhood, according to the good pleasure of dame for- 
tune, who ruled me in her wise and fed me with her 
dishes the most common and ordinary until the first day 
of January of the year 1584, when I received my first 
gift in the shape of a strong and violent disease, which 
tormented me more than a month : from which, having 
become cured with the help of God, and having with 
time recovered my health and my strength at the ar- 
rival of spring, I was seized with the desire to smell the 
air of the country. And in fact having thrown away 
my pen and travelled about {battu r es trade) through 
high and low Burgundy, I stopped at Bezenson, Impe- 
rial City, to spend the summer. This city is still to day 



LIST OF GLACIERES. 1 95 

just the same as Julius Caesar describes it, in the notable 
mention he makes of it, in the first book of his com- 
mentaries of the war in Gaul, there remaining there all 
the vestiges of the most remarkable things, which he 
tells of in his description. There are also very fine 
fountains, from all of which water streams from the repre- 
sentation of some god of antiquit}^ as a Neptune, a Bac- 
chus, a Pan, a Nereide or others : except before the state 
house, where the statue of Charles the Fifth, representing 
him in a most natural manner, is placed on an eagle, 
which from its beak, pours out such a great quantity of 
water that this is the most beautiful, among all the other 
fountains. And as I do not doubt that while traversing 
Italy, you both saw and examined with curiosity the most 
handsome singularities, which presented themselves to 
your eyes and that on your return, passing through 
Avignon and Dauphine, as your brother informed me, 
you had the advantage over me of seeing the wonders of 
the countr}', of which you had heard me speak sometimes, 
regretting that the war, during the time I was in that 
quarter, had prevented my going to the spot, to see the 
burning fountain as in Dodone, and the fountain called 
Jupiter, which torches of fire light up and which grows 
less till midday and then grows till midnight, and then di- 
minishes and fails at midday : and another in Epirus which 
we call to day Albania, the tower without venom and the 
inaccessible mountain : then as I said, since you have 
contemplated these things and several others not less 
admirable, I wish to entertain you about a marvel which 



196 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

I saw, during my sojourn in Bezenson, to know from you, 
whether in all your journey, you saw a similar thing. 
Know then that the day of the festival of St. John Bap- 
tist, a young man, provided with an honest knowledge, 
with whom I had made some little acquaintance, pre- 
sented me with an icicle, to cool my wine at dinner,, and 
which I admired greatly, on account of the time of the 
year in which we then were, begging him who gave it 
to me to tell me where he had discovered this rare pres- 
ent for that time. He answered me that every year, the 
day of the solemnity of the festival of St. John Baptist, 
the inhabitants of a village, which he named, were bound 
to come to offer the great church of St. John of Bezen- 
son, a goodly quantity of ice, which they got in a wood, 
and brought to town at night on horses, for fear that by 
day it should melt, and that one of his cronies had given 
to him what he had given to me. 

" Suddenly there flamed up in me a desire to see this 
place, where in the height of the summer, ice was to be 
found. When he who had presented me with the icicle 
saw this, he promised to accompany me, not having as yet, 
any more than myself, seen this marvel. I did not hatch 
very long this decision, all the more as all those, to whom 
I mentioned it, encouraged me to carry it out as soon as I 
could, assuring me that I should see a strange thing, and 
that even the Duke of Alva on his return from Flanders, 
passing through Franche Comte, had wished to see this 
novelty. Therefore calling on the promise of the one 
who was the cause of undertaking this journey, we went 



LIST OF GLACIERES, 1 97 

together to Versey, a fine town, distant five leagues fi-om 
Bezenson, turning a little off our direct route, to go to 
see a literary man, at this said Versey, who having called 
on me at Bezenson, had extracted from me the promise of 
going to see him. There happened to me in this spot, 
what the poet du Bellay says happened to him, on his 
return from Italy, passing through the Grisons, to go into 
France : who, after having chanted the troubles there are 
in the passage, says that the Swiss made him drink so 
much, that he does not remember anything he saw in that 
country. Likewise, I can assure you that my host, follow- 
ing the custom of those of the country (who do not think 
they are treating a man properly if they do not make him 
drink a lot, taking that from the Germans, their neighbors) 
made us carouse so well, that when we went to bed, we 
were very gay boys. For although we had both made an 
agreement on the road, yet our host knew so well how to 
win us over, saying that those who would not drink, gave 
reason to think badly of them, and that they had com- 
mitted, or wished to commit some great crime, which they 
feared to give away in drinking, that in the end we let 
ourselves go, passing the time in Pantagruelic fashion. 
The next morning having taken some ''hair from the 
beast " and a guide which our host gave to us to conduct 
us to the Froidiere — we continued our wanderings, and 
arrived at a little village called Chaud, joining a large 
wood, where our guide told us, that although he had been 
more than six times to the Froidiere, yet the road was so 
tortuous and so cut up by small paths, that if we did not 



198 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

take a man from this village, to be more sure, we might 
spend more than half a day in the wood, before finding 
what we were seeking. Getting off our horses now. we 
added to our company a native of the place, who having 
led us by crooked roads, about a quarter of a league, 
through the forest, made us enter into a close thicket and 
by a little path led us to a pleasant meadow ; where, 
looking down, we saw a hole, of difficult descent, at the 
bottom of which was the opening of a grotto, prett}- big, 
and so awful and terrif\'ino^ to see. that one would have 
said, it was the mouth of Hell. And in truth, I remembered 
then, the hole of St. Patrick, which is said to be in 
Hibernia. We were not brave enouo^h knio^hts. to trv the 
adventure, my companion and I. if our guides had not 
taken the lead. After whom we descended as ma2;nani- 
mously as the Trojan Duke followed the Sybil to the 
Plutonic realms, the sword half drawn from the scabbard^ 
and well determined to make test of the Platonic doctrine, 
which teaches that demons can be dissected, in case any 
shade or spook should have come to meet us. About the 
middle of the way, we began to feel in descending a very 
agreeable freshness : for it was the second day of July and 
the sun shone ver\- warmly, which made us sweat drop by 
drop. But we had good opportunit}- to refresh ourselves 
and put ourselves to cool, having reached the grotto which 
we found of the length and breadth of a large hall, all 
paved with ice in the bottom, and where a cr\'stalline water, 
colder than that of the mountains of Arcadia Xonacris, 
streamed from many small brooklets, which formed ver)' 



LIST OF GLACIERES. 1 99 

clear fountains, with the water of which I washed myself 
and drank so eagerly, that I had wished the thirst of Tan- 
talus, or else that I had been bitten by a Dipsas, in order 
to be always thirsty, amid such a pleasant beverage. A 
great lord, who in some pleasure resort, should have such 
a refrigerator in summer, could boast according to my 
judgment, to be better provided with drink, than the kings 
of Persia were with their river Coaspis, which engulphs 
itself into the Tigris, the water whereof was so sweet, that 
the use of it was allowed only to the great King, for the 
retinue and cronies of his household. Do not think, that 
among these delights, I was at all free from fear, for never 
did I raise my eyes above that from terror my whole body 
shivered and the hair stood up on my head, seeing the 
whole roof of the grotto, covered with big massive icicles, 
the least of which, falling on me, had been sufficient to 
scramble up my brains and knock me to pieces ; so much 
so that I was like to that criminal, whom they say is 
punished in Hell, by the continual fear of a big stone, 
which seems as though it must suddenly fall on his ears. 
There are besides the large hall of the grotto, some rather 
roomy corners, where the gentlemen of the neighborhood, 
put their venison to cool in summer, and we saw the 
hooks, where they hang the wild fowl. It is true, that 
when we were there, we saw neither game nor wild fowl, 
and I think, that if we had found any of it, we were men 
to carry off some of it. We walked around for about a 
quarter of an hour, in this Froidiere and we should have 
staid there longer if the cold had not driven us out; which 



200 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

Struck in to our backs, even to make our teeth crack ; we 
reascended the slope, not forgetting, all of us as many as 
we were, to provide and load ourselves with ice, which 
served us at lunch in the little village mentioned above to 
drink most delightfully, assuring you that it is impossible 
to drink more freshly than we drank then. I thought of 
those old voluptuaries, who cooled their wine with snow, 
and it seemed to me, as though they might have had it 
much cheaper if in their time there had been many such 
Froidieres, to refresh it with ice, instead of with snow, 
as some of the gentlemen of the neighborhood of the 
Froidiere and some of the most notable persons of the 
neighborhood of Bezenson do ; who by night, have a 
good supply brought on horses, which they keep in their 
caves, and use at their meals and banquets. Turning 
back towards the Imperial city of Bezenson, I carried for 
about two great leagues, a rather large icicle in my hands, 
which little by little melted and was a pleasant and agree- 
able cooler, on account of the great heat of the weather. 
After having thought over in my mind, the cause of this 
antiperistase^ I could find none other but this : to wit, that 
as heat domineers in summer, the cold retires to places 
low and subterranean, such as is this one, to which the rays 
of the sun cannot approach, and that in such an aquatic 
and humid place, it operates the results, which we have 
shown above. Which seemed to me so much more likely, 
that on asking the peasants of the neighboring village, if 
in winter there was ice in this Froidiere, they answered me 
that there was none, and that on the contrary, it was very 



LIST OF GLACIERES. 20I 

warm there. Whatever may be the cause, whether this or 
another, I can assure you, that I admired this singularity 
as much as any I have seen, since a large church, cut into 
a rock which I had seen a few years previously, in a little 
town of Gascony called St. Milion, distant seven leagues 
from Bordeaux ; on the steeple of which is the cemetery, 
where they bury the dead ; a thing to be marvelled at by 
him who has not seen it. 

'' I have made trial, to enrich this missive, with all 
the artifice which has come into my head, using the leis- 
ure, which the present time brings me : as the temple of 
Janus is open, the air beyond breathing nothing but war : 
which forces me, against my wish, to sojourn in this place 
longer than I had intended. If these troubles settle 
down, and if after the rain, God sends us fine weather as 
requires the calamitous state in which is now the flat 
country, I shall return to my Parnassus ; from which if 
I go out hereafter, believe that it will be very much in 
spite of myself, or that my will will have very much 
changed. You will be able to let me hear from you there, 
and take your revenge for the prolixity of this letter, by 
sending me one still longer, which you will write to me 
with more pleasure, as I shall take much in reading it. 
However as it is becoming time to sound taps, I will pray 
the sovereign creator for my affectionate recommendations 
to your graces. 

''Sir, and best friend, may you keep in health and have 
a long and happy life. From Sens this 20th of June 1585. 

- Your obedient friend BENIGNE POISSENOT. 



202 GLACI]feRES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

'* End of the description of the marvel, called the 
Froidiere!' 

The next notice about the Glaciere de Chaux-les- 
Passavant is by Gollut in 1592, as follows: — 

"Ices in i^\ ^q not wish however to omit (since I am 

summer." 

in these waters) to bring to mind the commod- 
ity, which nature has given to some dainty men, since 
at the bottom of a mountain of Leugne ice is found in 
summer, for the pleasure of those who wish to drink 
cool. Nevertheless at this time, this is disappearing, for 
no other reason (as I think) except, that they have de- 
spoiled the top of the mountain, of a thick and high mass 
of woods, which did not permit that the rays of the sun 
came to warm the earth, and Ary up the distillations, 
which slipped down to the low^est and coldest part of the 
mountain where {by antiperistase) the cold got thicker, 
and contracted itself against the heats surrounding and 
in the neighborhood during the whole summer, all the 
external circumference of the mountain." 

The ice at Chaux-les-Passavant is said to have been 
entirely cleared out, by the Due de Levi, in 1727, for the 
use of the Army of the Saone. In 1743, when de Cos- 
signy visited the cave, the ice was formed again. There 
are no reports about the intervening time between 1727 
and 1743. The ice probably all re-formed the winter after 
it was taken away. 

Captain Trouillet in 1885 writes of Chaux-les-Passa- 
vant: ''The following winter had shown itself unfavor- 



LIST OF GLACIERES. 2O3 

able to the production of ice, the periods of humidity 
preceding too long ahead the periods of frost. Finally 
last summer, coming after a wet spring, was exceptionally 
warm. Such were the circumstances which brought about 
in the glaciere the ruin which could be seen at the end of 
last October. * ^ * On the nth of November, the first 
effects of frost are felt and the temperature falls in the 
glaciere to — 2° : outside the thermometer drops to — 3°. 
On the morning of the 12th, same result, and ice makes 
its appearance in the grotto, as the report of the ob- 
server shows : but the quantity produced is so small that 
the internal thermometer soon goes above 0°. It is only 
on the 9th of December that the frost wins definitely ; on 
the nth, 12th and 13th the chill is intense and reaches 
— 19° outside, stopping at — 15° in the glaciere. The water 
coming from the rains between the 5th and the 9th drip 
at this time through the roof and the big side crevasse : 
circumstances grow favorable and the ice accumulates. 
From the 17th, the entrance slope becomes almost im- 
practicable ; the icicles grow on the roof, as big as the 
body of a man. * ^ ^ From this time to the end of 
December, the ice sheet does not increase, for water only 
arrives by the rare drip of the roof, and only the stalac- 
tites increase slowly. Outside, however, the cold con- 
tinues vigorously, the thermometer on the 31st of Decem- 
ber dropping to — 15° and to — 13° in the glaciere. If the 
production of the ice stops, it is not the cold which is 
wanting, but the other element, the one which as our 
former study showed, is the most rarely exact at the 



204 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

meeting. The winter is only favorable on condition that 
it offers alternating periods of freezing and thawing; so 
the observer writes in his report : ' it is the water which 
is wanting, otherwise the glaciere would be magnificent.' " 

Trouillet speaks of the difficulty of winter observations 
in the following words : '* Mons. Briot, the present lessor of 
the glaciere, has the unpaid mission of going every week 
to the bottom of the grotto to get and put in place the 
interior thermometer. It is a really hard piece of work 
at this time of the year : each journey takes about one 
hour. Besides the chance that a visitor has of receiving 
on his head one of those magnificent stalactites i meter or 
2 meters long which fall continually from the roof, it is 
perfectly disagreeable to him to arrive at the base of the 
slope otherwise than on the sole of his boots, and to face 
thus the frequent and painful meeting with rocks whose 
angular edges dot the surface of the descent, smooth as 
a mirror set at an angle of 30°." 

Trouillet and Girardot obtained a series of observa- 
tions with maxima and minima thermometers at Chaux- 
les-Passavant during the winter of 1 885-1 886. At the 
end of November the temperature inside was +2°. On 
the 2d of December it rose to + 2.5°. On the loth of 
December, it sank to — 1°, and after this date, it re- 
mained below freezing point all winter. The observa- 
tions were not continuous, but they showed that every 
time the temperature outside dropped considerably, the 
temperature inside immediately did likewise. For in- 
stance, on the 1 2th of January, the outside air dropped 



LIST OF GLACIERES. 205 

to — 18°, and the inside air responded by falling to 
— 15°. On the other hand, when the temperature out- 
side rose above freezing point, the temperature inside 
remained stationary or fluctuated only gently. For in- 
stance, from the 24th of March to the 8th of April, the 
outside air went up and down perpetually, the extremes 
being — 2° and + 16° ; while in the same time the inside 
air rose continuously from — 2° to — 0.5°. 

WiNDHOLES AND ICE FORMATIONS NEAR GeRARDMER, 

VosGES. (Rozet, in Encyclopedie Moderne, Didot Freres, 
Paris, 1853, vol. XVI., page 503.) 

L'Abime du Creux-Perce or Glaciere de Pasques. 
(Martel, Les Abimes, 1894, P^g^ 394 5 Annuaire du Club 
Alpin Frangais, vol. XIX., page 38.) — On the plateau of 
Langres, Cote d'Or. It lies 15 kilometers from Dijon^ 
and is really a limestone rock gorge, of 55 meters in 
depth, which at the top is 40 meters long and 20 meters 
wide, and at the bottom is 15 meters long and 12 meters 
wide. In March 1892, Mons. Martel found the north side 
covered with large icicles 1 5 meters long. The ice seems 
to remain throughout the year. The bottom of the Abime 
has been reached only by means of two long rope ladders. 

Creux de Chevroche or Roche Chevre, Cote d'Or. 
(Clement Drioton, Memoires de la Societe de Speleologies 
1897, vol. I., page 209.) — "In the woods of Mavilly, 
near Bligny-sur-Ouches, is a little cave, called Creux de 



206 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

Chevroche or Roche-Chevre, where one can find Ice until 
the month of July." 

Freezing Well of Marolles, at La Ferte-Milon, 
AiSNE. (Martel, Les A dimes, page 563, note 2.) — This 
well is 8.15 meters deep; the altitude is 70 meters. 
During the winter of 1892-93 the water in it froze for a 
thickness of 15 centimeters. The minimum outside tem- 
perature that year was — 17°. 

WiNDHOLEs near Pontgibaud, Puy de Dome. (G. Pou- 
lett-Scrope, The Geology and Extinct Volcanoes of Central 
France, 1858, page 60.) — These windholes are in basalt. 
There are many cracks, whence cold air currents issue, 
and where ice has been found, sometimes in summer. 
There are cold storage huts over some of the cracks. 

Le Creux-de-Souci, Puy de Dome. (Martel, Les 
Abimes, 1894, P^g^ Z^l^ — This is situated 5 kilometers 
southeast of Besse-en-Chandesse. It is a large lava cav- 
ern with the entrance directly in the middle of the roof. 
The bottom is partly filled by a lake. The depth from the 
surface of the ground to the lake is '^'^^ meters; from the 
smallest part of the opening to the lake the depth is 
21.50 meters. Down this last portion one can descend 
only by means of a rope ladder. The temperature is 
extremely low ; in general near freezing point. In June, 
July, August and November 1892, Monsieur Berthoule, 
maire of Besse, did not find any snow. On the loth of 
August, 1893, on the contrary, he found at the bottom a 



LIST OF GLACIERES. 207 

heap of snow, which he thinks was formed in the cave 
itself, by the freezing during their descent of the drops 
of water which are constantly dripping from the roof 
He reports landing on une montagne de neige, de neige 
blanche. On several visits, Mons. Berthoule noticed car- 
bonic acid gas in dangerous quantities. There was none 
at the time he observed the snow heap, but ten days later 
he found it impossible to descend into the cave as the 
carbonic acid gas came up in puffs to the entrance. In 
the lake, Mons. Berthoule discovered a variety of Rotifer, 
Notholca longispina, and also several algae and diatoms. 
The Asterionella formosa is the most remarkable from its 
abundance : it exists in some of the lakes of the Alps, 
but not in those of the Pyrenees. 

AvEN DE Lou Cervi, Vaucluse. (Martel, Les Abimes, 
page 563.) — This is a cold cave. It belongs to the class 
which Mons. Martel calls avens a retrecissement, or abimes a 
double orifice. In September, 1892, Mons. Martel noted a 
temperature of 6.5° at 53 meters ; of 6.8° at 64 meters. 
Mean temperature of locality, 8.75°. 

Igue de Biau, Lot. (Martel, Les Abimes, page 304.) — 
Cold cave. Temperature on 13th July, 1891 : 5°. 

Fosse Mobile, Charente. (Martel, Les Abimes, page 
380.) — Cold cave. Temperature on nth April, 1893: 7°. 

AvEN DE Deidou, Causse Mejean. (Martel, Les 
Abimes, page 223.) — Cold cave. Temperatures on 14th 
October, 1892: outside air, 4°; at bottom, 6.5°. 



208 GLACIl^RES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

AvEN DES OuLEs, Causse Mejean. (Martel, Les 
Abimes, page 227.) — Cold cave. Temperatures on 21st 
October, 1892: outside air, 2.5°; at bottom, 4°. 

WiNDHOLE Cold Caves near Roquefort, Aveyron. — 
They lie 13 kilometers from Millau, at an altitude of about 
600 meters, and are utilized in the manufacture of Roque- 
fort cheese. 

Aven de Carlet, near la Roche Giron, Basses Alpes. 
(Martel, Les Abimes, page 53.) — Lumps of ice are re- 
ported to have been taken from it. 

La Poujade, Cevennes. (Martel, Les Abimes, pages 
212-215.) — -^^ intermittent spring in limestone rock. At 
the bottom of the first gallery, on the 18th of September, 
1892, the temperature of the air was 12.3°, and that of 
a pool of water supplied by drip 11.5°. Mons. Martel 
thought that the drip brought to the pool the mean annual 
temperature of the ground through which it had come. 
A little further within and 5 meters lower, the temperature 
of the air was 7.3° and that of another pool of water 6.8®. 
This pool was not supplied by drip and must have been 
left over by the last flow of the spring. Mons. Martel 
thought that the lower temperatures at this spot were 
due to the cold air of winter dropping to the bottom of 
the cave and on account of its density not being able 
to get out. 

Snow Preserved in Chasms in the Italian Mountains. 
{The Penny Magazine, London, August, 1834, page 



LIST OF GLACIERES. 2O9 

335.) — Mr. Bunford Samuel called my attention to an arti- 
cle in which the Southern Italians are said to dig wells or 
cellars on the mountain sides, and to throw snow into them 
in winter. The snow is well pressed together and straw, 
dried leaves, etc., is thrown on top. By having a northern 
exposure for these pits, and seeing that they are in thick 
forest, or in rifts where the sun does not penetrate, these 
depots may be safely placed as low down the mountain as 
the snow falls and lies. Naples is largely supplied [1834] 
with snow in summer from such snow wells situated on 
Monte Angelo, the loftiest point of the promontory sep- 
arating the Bay of Naples from the Bay of Salerno. 

Cold Caves of San Marino, Apennines. (De Saus- 
sure. Voyages dans les Alpes, 1796, III., page 211.) — These 
are probably windholes. 

La Bocche DEI Venti di Cesi. (De Saussure, Voy- 
ages dans les Alpes, ij()6, III., page 211.) — These wind- 
holes were in the cellar of the house of Don Giuseppe 
Cesi, in the town of Cesi. The cellar acted as a natural 
refrigerator. The air stream was so strong, that it nearly 
blew out the torches. In winter the wind rushed into the 
holes. De Saussure was shown the following Latin verses 
by the owner : — 

' ' Abditus hie ludit vario discrimine ventus 
Et faciles miros exhibet aura jocos. 
Nam si bruma riget, quaecumque objeceris haurit. 
Evomit aestivo cum calet igne dies," 



2IO GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

WiNDHOLES OR ''VeNTAROLe" ON MoNTE TeSTACEO, 

NEAR Rome. (De Saussure, Voyages dans les Alpes, 
1796, III., page 209.) — There are a number here among 
heaps of broken pottery. The temperatures seem ab- 
normally low. 

Krypta Sorana. (Kircher, Mundus Subterraneus, 1 664, 
page 118 and page 239.) — This has been spoken of as a 
glaciere cave, but as there is much doubt in the matter, 
I quote the passages, on which the reports are based, in 
the original Latin : '' Cryptae sunt naturales, quarum in- 
numerae sunt species, juxta vires naturales iis inditas. 
Sunt nonnullae medicinali virtute praeditae, quaedam 
metallicis vaporibus, exhalationibus, aquis scatent, sunt 
et glaciales, plenae nivibus et crystallo, uti in Monte 
Sorano me vidisse memini." And further: '' Vidi ego in 
Monte Sorano cryptam veluti glacie incrustatam, ingenti- 
bus in fornice hinc inde stiriis dependentibus, e quibus 
vicini montis accolae pocula aestivo tempore conficiunt, 
aquae vinoque, quae iis infunduntur, refrigerandis aptis- 
sima, extremo rigore in summas bibentium delicias com- 
mutato." 

Subterranean Ice Sheet, Mount Etna, Sicily. 
(Lyell, Principles of Geology, nth Edition, chapter 
XXVI.) — This ice sheet is near the Casa Inglese. Sir 
Charles Lyell ascertained the fact of its existence in 1828, 
and in 1858 he found the same mass of ice, of unknown 
extent and thickness, still unmelted. In the beginning of 



LIST OF GLACIERES. 211 

the winter of 1828, Lyell found the crevices in the interior 
of the summit of the highest cone of Etna encrusted with 
thick ice, and in some cases hot vapors actually stream- 
ing out between masses of ice and the rugged and steep 
walls of the crater. Lyell accounts for this ice sheet by 
the explanation that there must have been a great snow 
bank in existence at the time of an eruption of the vol- 
cano. This deep mass of snow must have been covered 
at the beginning of the eruption by volcanic sand show- 
ered on it, followed by a stream of lava. The sand is a 
bad conductor of heat and together with the solidified 
lava, preserved the snow from liquefaction. 

Glaciere on the Moncodine. (Fugger, Eishohlen, 
page 13.) — The Moncodine is described as a Dolomite 
near the Lago di Como. The cave lies up the Val Sasina, 
two hours from Cortenuova, at an altitude of 1675 nieters. 
The entrance faces north, and is 2.5 meters high and 1.5 
meters wide. The average diameter of the cave is 16 
meters. The floor is solid ice, which has been sometimes 
cut for use in the hotels on the Lago di Como and even 
been sent to Milan. 

La Ghiacciaia del Mondole. (Fugger, Eishohlen, 
page 8.) — The Mondole is a mountain 2375 meters high, 
near Mondovi, south of Turin. The cave lies on the 
eastern slope, at an altitude of about 2000 meters. It is 
hard to get at. The entrance is to the east, and is 2 
meters wide and 1.5 meters high. A passageway some 



212 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

25 meters long leads to a large chamber where there is 
plenty of ice. In hot summers ice is brought from the 
cave to Mondovi. Ghiacciaia means freezing cavern in 
Italian. 

La Ghiacciaia del Val Seguret. (Fugger, Eis- 
hohlen, page 8.)— It lies near Susa at the base of chalk 
cliffs, at an altitude of about 1500 meters. The cave is 
said to be about 40 meters deep, 50 meters wide and 50 
meters high. Bonetti in May, 1874, found many icicles 
and ice cones. 

La Borna de la Glace. (Chanoine Carrel, Biblio- 
theque Universelle de Geneve, 1841, vol. XXXIV., page 
196.) — It lies in the Duchy of Aosta, commune of La 
Salle, on the northern slope of the hills near Chabauday, 
in a spot called Plan Agex. The altitude is 1602 meters. 
The entrance opens to the east and is 60 centimeters wide 
and 80 centimeters high. One can descend for 4 meters. 
There are two branches in the rear of the entrance. 
Chanoine Carrel found an ice pillar i meter high in the 
western branch. He recorded these temperatures on the 
15th of July, 1841 : Outside -I-15®. Entrance +2.9°. East 
branch +0.9°. West branch +0.5°. 

WiNDHOLES IN THE ITALIAN AlPS. (Fugger, Eis- 

hohlen, pages 94-97.) — A number of these seem to have 
abnormally low temperatures. Some are in the moun- 



LIST OF GLACIERES. 213 

tains around Chiavenna, and are sometimes, by building 
small huts over them, utilized as refrigerators. Some 
are reported in the neighborhood of the Lago di Como 
near Dongo, near Menaggio, and in the villa Pliniana 
near Curino ; in the neighborhood of the Lake of Lugano 
at the base of Monte Caprino, near Melide, near Men- 
drisio and near Sertellino ; and in the Val Maggia near 
Cevio. 

The Glaciere de Font d'Urle, or Fondurle, Dau- 
PHiNE. (Hericart de Thury, Annales des Mines, vol. 
XXXIII., page 157; G. F. Browne, Ice Caves, etc., page 
212 ; E. A. Martel, Memoir es de la Societe de Speleologie, 
vol. I., page 2^'] \ L. Villard, Spelunca, 1896, vol. II., page 
39.) — It lies on the Foire de Font d'Urle, 16 kilometers 
north of Die, 48 kilometers east of Valence, and 80 kilo- 
meters south of Grenoble. The glaciere consists of two 
large pits, lying east and west, and with underground 
communication. From this tunnel a long low archway 
leads to a broad slope of chaotic blocks of stone, which 
is 60 meters long and 42 meters in greatest width. The 
ice begins half way down this slope, fitfully at first and 
afterwards in a tolerably continuous sheet. Thury found 
many icicles hanging from the roof Browne found four 
columns of ice, of which the largest was 5.80 meters across 
the base. On his visit, in the middle of August, the ice 
was strongly thawing. Both explorers noted the ex- 
tremely prismatic character of the ice. Browne found a 
temperature of -fo.5°. Martel gives a section and plan 



214 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

of Font d'Urle. Mons. Villard says about this cavern : 
*' A curious thing : I found in this cave, motionless on 
a piece of rock, entirely surrounded by ice for a distance 
of several meters, a blind specimen of a coleoptera, 
cytodrom tcs dapsotdes. 

The Chourun Clot. (E. A. Martel, Sous Terre. 
A7inuaire du Club Alpin Frangais, vol. XXIII., 1896, 
pages 42, 43 ; Memoir es de la Societe de Speleologie, 
vol. I., page 31.) — In Dauphine, halfway between Agnieres 
and the Pic Costebelle, at an altitude of 1,740 meters. 
There is first a pit 18 meters long, 4.50 meters wide and 
25 meters deep. In the bottom of this is a vertical hole 
15 meters deep and from i meter to 2 meters in diame- 
ter, in which there was much ice on the 31st of July, 1896. 
Then the pit changes to a sloping gallery which terminates 
in a little hall, full of ice, at a depth of 70 meters. Martel 
gives a cut and section of this glaciere. 

The Glaciere du Trou de Glas. (E. A. Martel, La 
Geographie, 1900, vol. I., page 52.) — In the range of the 
Grande Chartreuse. 

The Chourun Martin. (E. A. Martel, La Geographie, 
1900, vol. I., page 53.) — In the range of the Devoluy, 
Hautes-Alpes ; altitude 1,580 meters. An extremely 
deep pit, which on July 31st, 1899, was much blocked 
up with snow. 



LIST OF GLACIERES. 215 

The Chourun de la Parza. (E. A. Martel, La 
Geographie, 1900, vol. L, page 54.) — In the range of the 
Devoluy, Hautes-Alpes ; altitude 1,725 meters. A fine 
pit, 25 meters in diameter, and 74 meters in depth. 
Filled with snow or rather neve, in which are deep holes. 

The Glaciere de l'Haut-d'Aviernoz. Described in 
Part I., page 2. (C. Dunant, Le Parmelan et ses Lapiaz, page 
26; Browne, Ice Caves, etc., page 157.) — Mons. Dunant calls 
this glaciere I'Haut d'Aviernoz ; Mr. Browne calls it the 
Glaciere du Grand Anu. By a plumb line held from the 
edge of the larger pit, Browne found that the ice floor was 
about 35 meters from the surface, which would give a level 
for the ice floor closely identical to the one I found. In 
July, 1864, he recorded a temperature of +1.1°. 

The Glaciere de l'Enfer. (G. F. Browne, Good 
TVordsy November, 1866; T. G. Bonney, T/ie Alpine 
Regions, 1868, pages 95, 96; C. Dunant, Le Parmelan 
et ses Lapiaz, page 25.) — On Mont Parmelan. A pit cave 
with a steep slope of broken rock leading to a rock por- 
tal in the face of a low cliff. This opens into a roughly 
circular hall about 22 meters in diameter and 3 meters to 
4 meters in height. A chink between the rock and the 
ice permitted Mr. Browne to scramble down three or four 
meters to where a tunnel entered the ice mass. Throw- 
ing a log of wood down this tunnel, a crash was heard 
and then a splash of water, and then a strange gulping 
sound. ** The tunnel obviously led to a subglacial reser- 



2l6 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

voir and this was probably covered by a thin crust of ice ; 
the log in falling had broken this and then disturbed the 
water below, which then commenced bubbling up and 
down through the hole, and making a gulping noise, just 
as it does sometimes when oscillating up and down in a 
pipe." 

Mons. C. Dunant of the Club Alpin Frangais describes 
a visit to the Glaciere de TEnfer. He mentions also a 
legend of a witch from a neighboring village who would 
get the ice from these caves and bring it down in the 
shape of hail on the crops of the peasants who were in- 
hospitable to her. 

The Glaciere de Chapuis. Described in Part I., page 5. 
(Browne, Ice Caves, etc., page 182, and Good Wordsy 
November, 1866.) — Mr. Browne calls it the Glaciere de 
Chappet-Sur-Villaz. Mr. Browne and Professor T. G. 
Bonney found several flies in the Glaciere de Chapuis. 
Three of them were specimens of Ste^iophylax, the largest 
being probably, but not certainly, S. hieroglyphicus of Ste- 
phens. Two smaller caddis flies were either S. testaceus 
of Pictet or some closely allied species. One other in- 
sect was an ichneumon of the genus Paniscus, of an 
unidentified species. It differed from all its congeners 
in the marking of the throat, resembling in this respect 
some species of Ophion. Mr. Browne thinks that the 
case flies may have been washed into the cave somehow 
or other in the larva form, and come to maturity on the 
ice where they had lodged. But this explanation will not 



LIST OF GLACIERES. 21 7 

hold in the case of the ichneumon, which is a parasitic 
genus on larvae of terrestrial insects. 

The Glaciere de Le Brezon. (Pictet, Bibliotheque 
Universelle de Geneve, 1822, vol. XX., page 270, and Thury, 
Bibliotheque Universelle de Geneve, 1861, vol. X., pages 139 
and 152.) — It lies southeast of Bonneville near the foot of 
Mount Lechaud, at an altitude of 1276 meters. The cave 
is 9.7 meters long, about 8 meters wide and the greatest 
height is about 4 meters. The entrance is small and is at 
the base of a cliff, in some places of which cold air cur- 
rents issue. The ice lies on the floor. Some of it is 
probably winter snow. 

The Glaciere de Brisons. — Described in Part I., 
page I. 

The Grand Cave de Montarquis. Described in Part 
I., page 70. (Thury, Bibliotheque Universelle de Geneve, 
vol. X., pages 135-153.) — Professor Thury describes two 
visits to this cave. On the i6th of August, 1859, he found 
no ice stalactites or stalagmites. On the 19th of January, 
1 86 1, he did not find a single drop of water in the cave, 
but many stalactites and stalagmites of beautiful clear ice, 
one of which resembled porcelain more than any other 
substance. In August, Thury found an air current stream- 
ing into the cave at the rear, but this did not, however, 
disturb the air of the interior, for in one part it was in per- 
fect equilibrium : along the line of the draughts the ice was 
more melted than elsewhere in the cave. In January, the 



2l8 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

current was reversed and poured into the fissure, with the 
temperature varying between — 1.5° and — 2.5°. He ob- 
served the following temperatures at the Grand Cave : — 

TIME. OUTSIDE. INSIDE. 

1 6th August, 1859 +8.6° +2.5° 

19th January, 1861 1.25 P. M. +2.6° — 4.° 

'' '* '* 2.12 ** +2.1° — 4.° 

'' *' " 3.50 *' — 1.1° — 4.° 

The Petite Cave de Montarquis. Mentioned in 
Part I., page 71. (Thury, Bibliotheqite U^iiverselle de 
Geneve, 1861, vol. X., page 150. Also quotes Morin.) — At 
the end of a crooked fissure 10 meters deep, a passage 6 
meters long, leads into a cave 8 meters high and 5 meters 
in diameter. In August, 1828, Morin found an ice stalag- 
mite of 5 meters in height in the middle of the cave. 

Cave Containing Ice on the Southern Shore of 
Lake Geneva. — Reported ; no information. 

The Glaciere and Neigiere d'Arc-Sous-Cicon. 
(Browne, Ice Caves, etc., page 118.) — These lie close 
together in the Jura about twenty kilometers from Pon- 
tarlier. The little glaciere is formed by a number of fis- 
sures in the rock, disconnected slits in the surface open- 
ing into larger chambers where the ice lies. The neigiere 
is a deep pit, with a collection of snow at the bottom, 
much sheltered by overhanging rocks and trees. A huge 
fallen rock covers a large part of the sloping bottom of 
the pit, which forms a small cave in the shape of a round 
soldier's tent, with walls of rock and floor of ice. 



LIST OF GLACIERES. 219 

The Glaciere de la Genolliere. Described in 
Part I., page 48. (Browne, Ice Caves, etc., page i.) — 
Mr. Browne observed in 1864 ^ temperature of + 1.1°, 
and two days later of + 0.8°. He also found a number 
of flies running rapidly over the ice and stones. He 
was told in England, from the specimen he brought 
away, that it was the Stenophylax hieroglyphicus of Ste- 
phens or something very like that fly. 



m 



The Glaciere de Saint-Georges. Described 
Part I., page 62. (Thury, Bibliotheque Universelle de 
Geneve, 1861, vol. X.) — Professor Thury obtained the fol- 
lowing temperatures at the Glaciere de Saint-Georges : — 



9th January, 1858 



Minimum of night 
loth January, 1858 



Minimum of night 
nth January, 1858 
2d April, 1858 . . 
Minimum of night 
3d April, 1858 . . 



OUTSIDE. 


INSIDE. 


7.36 P. M.,— 4.5° 


7.16 P. M., 


0.6° 




7.20 '' 


1.2° 




7.27 - 


— 2.5° 




7.50 - 


— 2.9° 


— 5-8° 




— 4.9° 


10.53 A. M., —3.4° 


10.12 A. M., 


— 4.60 


II. 14 '' — 3.1° 


10.30 '* 


— 4.5° 


11.45 '' — 2.2° 


11.20 '* 


— 4.4° 


12.32 P. M., — 2.4° 


12.14 p. M. 


— 4.4"' 


1. 12 '' — 0.9° 


1.30 '' 


— 4.2'' 


3.03 '' —2.9° 


2.30 '' 


— 4.1° 


3.56 '' —3.5° 


3.14 " 


— 4.0° 


4.26 '' —3.7° 


4.00 " 


— 3.8° 


— 7.6° 




— 6.8° 




9.34 A.M. 


— 5.6° 


6.20 P. M., 4-0.7° 




— 0.2° 


+ 1.1° 






10.00 A. M., -H 4.0° 


9.00 A. M. 


, — 1.0° 



2 20 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

Professor Thury's winter excursions caused him to 
accept as proved that part of the mountaineers' belief, 
which holds that there is no ice formed in caves in winter. 
One of the main grounds for his opinion was the series of 
observations he made in the Glaciere de Saint-Georges. 
He found no ice forming there in winter and the natives 
said it did not because the cavern was not cold enough. 
So he placed large dishes filled with water in the cave and 
found that they froze solid during the night, which he had 
been assured was impossible. Thury also found violent 
movements of the air at Saint-Georges in January, 1858. 
A candle burned steadily for some time, but at 7.16 P. M. 
it began to flicker and soon inclined downwards through 
an angle of about 45° ; and in the entrance, the flame 
assumed an almost horizontal position. At 8 P. M., the 
current of air nearly disappeared. Thury thought that this 
violent and temporar}^ disturbance of equilibrium was due 
to the fact that as the heavier air outside tended to pass 
into the cave, the less cold air within tended to pass out ; 
and the narrow entrance confining the struggle to a small 
area, the weaker current was able for a while to hold its 
own. 

The Glaciere du Pre de Saint-Livres. Described 
in Part I., page 65. (Browne, Ice Caves, page 40.) — Mr. 
Browne found, in 1864, a temperature of o"^. 

The Petite Glaciere du Pre de Saint-Livres. 
(Browne, Ice Caves, page 46.) — This is near the last cave 
at a slightly higher altitude. There is first a small pit. 



LIST OF GLACIERES. 221 

then a little cave, in which there is an ice slope. This 
passes under a low arch in the rock wall, and leads down 
into another small cave. Mr. Browne descended this ice 
stream, which was itself practically a fissure column and 
spread into the fan shape at the base. The lower cave 
was 2 2 meters long and ii meters wide, and contained an 
ice floor and several fissure columns. 

The Glaciere de Naye, above Montreux, Switzer- 
land. (E. A. Martel, Les Abimes, page 397 ; Spelunca, 
1895, vol. I., pages 107, 108; Memoires de la Societe de 
Speleologie, vol. III., pages 246-254.) — This is called a gla- 
cier souterrain. It was discovered in 1893 t)y Professor 
Dutoit. There are fifty-four caves known among the 
Rochers de Naye, and only this one contains ice. It is a 
long narrow cave with two entrances and widest towards 
the base, which opens over a precipice. The altitude is 
high, the upper entrance being at an altitude of 1820 
meters, and the lower of 1750 meters. The place is both 
a passage cave and a windhole. The snow falls into the 
upper entrance, and slides down, becoming ice in the 
lower portion. There are other connecting passages and 
hollows where the cold air cannot get in, and there ice 
does not form. Mons. Martel thinks that the ice formed 
during the winter is preserved by the draughts — due to 
the difference in level of the two openings — causing an 
evaporation and chill sufificient for the purpose. 

The Creux Bourquin. (E. A. Martel, Les AbimeSy 
page 397.) — At Mauberget, near Grandson. This is a 



22 2 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

rock gorge 25 meters deep. At the bottom, on the 9th 
of July, 1893, ^^'^s ^ mass of ice 38 meters long and 8 
meters wide. 

The Glaci^re de Monthezy. (Browne, Ice Caves, page 
97.) — This lies to the west of Neufchatel, between the Val 
de Travers and the Val de Brevine, on the path between the 
villages of Couvet and Le Brevine, at an altitude of 11 00 
meters. The cave is nearly oval in shape, with a length of 
34 meters and a width of 29 meters. The roof is from 
I meter to 3 meters high. There are three pits, about 
20 meters deep, on different sides of the cave. The 
descent is made through the largest pit. On the 6th of 
July, 1864, Mr. Browne found the floor of the cave cov- 
ered with ice, and icicles and columns in some places ; 
he also saw a clump of cowslips ^primula elatior^ over- 
hanging the snow at the bottom of the pit through which 
he descended. 

Pertius Freiss. (T. G. Bonney, Nature, vol. XL, page 
327.) — It lies on the way to the Pic d'Arzinol, near Evo- 
lene, in the Val d'Herens. A slip or subsidence of part of 
a cliff has opened two joints in the rock, in both of which 
fissures Professor Bonney found ice on July 23d. 

The Schafloch. Described in Part I., page 21. 
(Korber, Jahrbuch des Schweizer Alpen Club, 1885, vol. XX., 
pages 316, 343.) — Herr Korber gives some of the dimen- 
sions as follows: Entrance 14 meters wide and 4.70 



LIST OF GLACIERES. 223 

meters high. Length of cave 206.8 meters: average width 
20 meters and greatest width 23.5 meters. Height from 
5 meters to 7 meters. Length of ice slope 29 meters and 
breadth 12.5 meters; for 16 meters the slope has an incli- 
nation of 32°. Korber made the following observations in 
the Schafloch: — 





14 METERS 


100 METERS 


160 METERS 


DATE. OUTSIDE. 


FROM 


FROM 


FROM 




ENTRANCE. 


ENTRANCE. 


ENTRANCE. 


21 September, 1884, 10.5° 


5.6° 


0.2° 


0.2° 


18 January, 1885, , . 2.7° 


— 1.0° 


— 1.3° 





The Rev. G. F. Browne, in 1864, found a temperature 
of +0.5°. 

The Eisloch of Unterfluh. (Baltzer, Jahrbuch des 
Schweizer Alpen Club, 1892-93, pages 358-362.) — Twenty- 
minutes from Unterfluh near Meiringen. A long narrow 
rock crack, some 30 meters deep and running some dis- 
tance underground. 

WiNDHOLEs AND MiLKHOusES OF Seelisberg. — De- 
scribed in Part I., page 45. 

WiNDHOLEs ON THE Spitzfluh. (Fugger, Eishohlen, 

page 92.) — These are situated between Oltingen and 

Zeylingen, Canton Bale: they generally contain ice till 
the end of July. 

WiNDHOLES ON THE Blummatt. (Fugger, Eishohlen, 
page 93.) — On the northwestern slope of the Stanzerberg. 
Ice sometimes lies over in these windholes. 



2 24 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

WiNDHOLES NEAR BozEN. (Fuggcr, Eishohleu, page 
97.) — On the Mendel ranges in Eppan, southwest of 
Bozen, among porphyry rocks. There are strong wind- 
streams. Ice is said to remain till late in the summer. 

Grotto on Monte Tofana, Dolomites. (T. G. Bon- 
ney, Nature, vol. XL, page 328.) — This is probably a rudi- 
mentary glaciere. 

Holes with Ice near Lienz. (Fugger, Eishohlen, 
page 97.) — One hour and a half distant near Aineth, is 
a small cave containing ice, and further up the valley 
towards Huben, are several windholes. 

EisHOHLE AM BiRNHORN. (Fugger, Etskoklen, page 
131.) — Near Leogang in the Pinzgau. Altitude 2150 
meters. There are two entrances, from which a slope 10 
meters long, set at an angle of 25°, leads to an ice floor 
12 meters long and 3 meters high. Then comes a small 
ice slope, and a little horizontal floor at the back. Ex- 
plored by Fugger. 

Glacieres on THE EisKOGEL. (Fugger, Eishohlen, page 
19.) — The Eiskogel is in the Tennengebirge, a mountain 
mass lying east of Pass Lueg. At an altitude of about 
1900 meters, are two small caves, about 30 meters to 40 
meters apart. They are some 25 meters in length and get 
smaller towards the bottom. 

Holes with Ice in the Tennengebirge, between the 
ScHALLWAND AND THE Tauernkogel. (Fugger, Eiskoklen, 



LIST OF GLACIERES. 225 

page 20.) — In this gorge are some small holes at an alti- 
tude of about 2000 meters, which are said to contain ice in 
summer. 

The Seeofen. (A. Posselt-Csorich, Zeitschrift des Deut- 
schen und Oesterreichischen Alpen Verein, 1880, page 270.) 
On the Hean Krail in the Tennengebirge, at an altitude of 
about 1900 meters. The entrance faces southwest, and is 
6 meters high and 4.5 meters wide. The cave is 25 meters 
long, and 8 meters wide. The floor of the cave is 13 
meters below the entrance. 

The Posselthohle. (A. Posselt-Csorich, Zeitschrift des 
Deutschen und Osterreichischen Alpen Verein^ 1880, page 
273.) — Named after its discoverer. It lies on the Hoch- 
kogel in the Tennengebirge, at an altitude of about 1900 
meters. The entrance faces southwest, and is about 8 
meters high and 8 meters wide. From the entrance the 
cave first rises, then sinks again below the level of the 
entrance, where the ice begins. The cave is about 20 
meters wide. About 180 meters were explored, to a point 
where a perpendicular ice wall, 6 meters high, barred 
the way. About 125 meters from the entrance, there was 
an ice cone about 7 meters high. 

The Gamsloch or Diebshohle. (Fugger, Eishohlen, 
page 14.) — It lies on the Breithorn of the Steinernes Meer, 
near the Riemannhauss, at an altitude of about 2180 
meters. The entrance faces south. There is first a 



2 26 GLACI^,RES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

small, then a larger chamber. The latter is some 40 
meters long, by 5 meters or 6 meters wide. The ice is 
in the large chamber. 

EiSHOHLE AM Seilerer. (Fugger, Eishohlen, page 
15.) — On the eastern side of the Seilerer arete on the 
Ewigen Schneeberg, west of Bischofshofen, at an altitude 
of about 2400 meters, is a small glaciere cave. 

Cave in the Hagengebirge, West of Pass Lueg. 
(Fugger, Eishbhlen, page 15.) — It lies about 2 kilometers 
east of Kalbersberg, at an altitude of about 2000 meters. 
A snow slope, with an ice floor at the bottom, leads into 
a long cave, about which little is known. 

The Nixloch. Described in Part I., page 57. (Fug- 
ger, Eishohlen, page 98.) — Professor Fugger gathered 
some valuable data in connection with the Nixloch. In 
August, 1879, he found the air current entering down- 
wards; on September 14th, 1879, there was no current 
either way. On Christmas day, 1878, on the contrary, the 
draughts were reversed, pouring out of the hole with a 
temperature of + 7.4°: the outside air then being — 7.4°. 
At this time the known lower opening was in existence. 

The Kolowratshohle. Described in Part I., page 18. 
(Fugger, Beobachtungen, etc., page 7.) — This cavern has 
been more carefully studied than any other glaciere cave. 
Some of its dimensions are given by Professor Fugger as 
follows : From the entrance to the ice floor, 26.6 meters ; 



LIST OF GLACIERES. 22 7 

surface covered by ice as measured on a plane, 2940 
square meters ; approximate cubical measure of entire cave, 
92,000 cubic meters. The height of the entrance is 7 
meters, with a width at the base of 2.7 meters, and at the 
top of 6.6 meters. 

On the entrance slope occurred the only fatal accident 
I know of in glacieres. In 1866, the Bavarian minister 
Freiherr von Lerchenfeld tried to descend ; a wooden 
handrail which had been erected over the snow broke 
under his weight ; von Lerchenfeld fell to the bottom of 
the cave and died a few days after from the injuries he 
received. 

Of the Kolowratshole, we have numerous thermometric 
observations by Professor Fugger, of which I select a few. 





DATE 


21 May 


1876 . 


18 June 


1876 . 


24 June 


1876 . 


5 July 


1876 . 


22 July 


1876 . 


29 July 


1876 . 


22 Aug. 


1876 . 


20 Sept. 


1876 . 


22 Sept. 


1876 . 


16 Oct. 


1876 . 


22 Oct. 


1876 . 


26 Nov. 


1876 . 


6 Jan. 


1877. 



OUTSIDE. 


ENTRANCE. 


INSIDE. 


REAR. 


+ 6.5° 


+ 0.7° 


+ 0.03° 0° 


& +o.o8'> 


+ 5.1° 


+ 1.6° 


+ 0.23° 


+ 0.4° 


+ IO.° 


+ 1.6° 


+ 0.4° 








+ 0.4° 




+ 11.3° 


+ 1.5° 


+ 0.4° 


+ 0.2° 


+ 15.2° 


+ 2.4° 


+ 0.3° 


+ 0.2° 


+ 19.8° 


+ 4.0° 


+ 0.4° 


+ 0.25° 


+ 7.2° 


+ 3.0° 


+ 0.45° 
+ 0.3° 


+ 0.6° 


+ 14.8° 


+ 2.05° 


+ 0.2° 


+ 0.2° 


+ 5.6° 


+ 2.5° 


+ 0.25° 


+ 0.4° 


+ 4-4° 


+ 0.4° 


~I.O° 




+ 2.1° 


+ 1.2° 


—1.65° 


— 0.6° 



The Schellenberger Eisgrotte. (Fugger, Beobach- 
tungen in den Eishohlen des Untersberges, page 80.) — On 
the southeast slope of the Untersberg near Salzburg, at an 



2 28 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

altitude of 1580 meters. The path leads past the Kien- 
bergalp over the Mitterkaser and the Sandkaser. In front 
of the entrance is a sort of rock dam, 30 meters long and 
5 meters or 6 meters higher than the entrance. Masses 
of snow fill the space between the two. The entrance is 
about 20 meters wide and from 2 meters to 3 meters high. 
A snow slope of 25 meters in length, set at an angle of 25°, 
leads to the ice floor. The cave is 54 meters long, from 
13 meters to 22 meters broad and from 4 meters to 10 
meters high. The cave has been repeatedly examined by 
Fugger, who has always found most snow and ice in the 
beginning of the hot weather, after which it gradually 
dwindles away. 

Of the Schellenberger Eisgrotte, we have the following 
thermometric observations by Professor Fugger : — 

DATE. OUTSIDE. ENTRANCE. INSIDE. 

29 June, 1877 +18'' — +0.38° 

24 " I881 +21° +2.3° +0.24° 

28 Aug., 1878 +14.6° — -fo.2° 

12 " 1879 +17.8° — +0.3° 

40ct., 1876 +16.7° +1.4° +0.3" 

9 " 1880 + 3.6° +3.5° +0.3° 

2 '' 1887 -f 5.4° — +0.4° 

9 '' 1887 -h 8.2° — +0.4° 

II Nov., 1877 + 7.4° — +0.2° 

The Grosser Eiskeller or Kaiser Karls Hohle. 
(Fugger, Beobachtungen, etc., page 58.) — On the Unters- 
berg, between the Salzburger Hochthron and the Schweig- 
miiller Alp. Altitude 1687 meters. A stony slope of 26 
meters in length leads to an ice floor which is 26 meters 
long and 6 meters to 8 meters wide. 



LIST OF GLACIERES. 229 

The Kleiner Eiskeller. (Fugger, Beobachtungen, 
etc., page 73.) — Near the last. A small cave 8 meters 
long, 6 meters wide, 8 meters high. 

The Windlocher on the Untersberg. (Fugger, Beob- 
achtungen, etc., page 73.) — On the Klingersteig, at an alti- 
tude of 1300 meters. Four small caves of about 12 meters 
each in length and 8 meters in depth, and communica- 
ting at the bottom. There are strong draughts among 
them. In one of the caves is a small pit of great depth. 

The Eiswinkel on the Untersberg. (Fugger, Beob- 
achtungen, etc., page ^^^ — Between the Klingeralp and 
the Vierkaser, at an altitude of 1600 meters. A small 
cave or rather rock shelter. 

WiNDHOLEs on THE Untersberg. (Fugger, Eishohlen, 
pages 103, 104.) — Windholes have been found by Fugger 
on the lower slopes of the Untersberg : 

Near the Hochbruch at Fiirstenbrunn. 

In the debris of the Neubruch. 

In the debris of the Veitlbruch. 

Hotel Cellar at Weissenbach on the Attersee. 
(Fugger, EishohleUy page 20.) — There is a small cave 
here, at an altitude of 452 meters, which is utilized as 
a cellar, and which is said to contain ice in summer. 

Cave near Steinbach. (Fugger, Eishohlen, page 
20.) — A small cave containing ice on the northwest slopes 
of the Hollengebirge. Altitude about 700 meters. 



230 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

The Kliebensteinhohle or Klimmsteinhohle. (Fug- 
ger, EisJwhlen, page 20.) — On the north slope of the Hol- 
lengebirge, near the Aurachkar Alp, between Steinbach 
and the Langbath Lakes. Altitude about 1300 meters. 
Length about 40 meters, width 20 meters, height 15 meters. 

The Wasserloch. (Fugger, EisJwhlen, page 21.) — 
On the south slope of the Hollengebirge, near the Spitz- 
alpe. Altitude about 1350 meters. At the bottom of a 
gorge is a snow heap and a small cave. The snow 
becomes ice in the cave. 

Cave on the Zinkexkogl near Aussee. (Fugger, 
Eishdhle7i, page 21.) — Altitude about 1800 meters. A 
snow slope leads to an ice floor 18 meters long and 4 
meters wide. 

Cave on the Kasberg. (Fugger, Eishbhle^i, page 
22.) — South of Grlinau near Gmunden. Altitude about 
1500 meters. Small cave 12 meters long, 4 meters wide. 

The Wasseraufschlag on the Rothen Kogel. (Fug- 
ger, Eishohleii, page 22.) — A tunnel near Aussee. The 
ice in it was formerly used. 

The Gschlosslkirche. (Fugger, Eishohlen, page 
22.) — On the Dachstein range, facing the Lake of Gosau. 
A small cave, mostly filled with snow. 

Cave with Ice on the Mitterstein. (Fugger, Eis- 
hohlen, page 23.) — On the Dachstein, one hour and a quar- 



LIST OF GLACIERES. 23 1 

ter from the Austria hut. Altitude about 1800 meters. 
Cave 5 meters to 6 meters wide, 30 meters long. In the 
rear a passage leads apparently to a windhole where 
there is a strong draught. 

WiNDHOLES IN THE ObERSULZBACH VaLLEY IN THE 

PiNZGAU. (Fugger, Eishohlen, page 105.) — Fugger found 
ice among these on the ist of August, 1886. 

Ice in an Abandoned Nickel Mine on the Zink- 
WAND, IN THE ScHLADMiNG Valley. (Fugger, Eishohlen, 
page 105.) 

WiNDHOLES ON THE RoTHEN KoGEL NEAR AUSSEE. 

(Fugger, Eishohlen, page 106.) — These were found to 
contain ice on the 2d of September, 1848. 

Cave on the Langthalkogel. (Fugger, Eishohlen, 
page 23.) — On the Dachstein plateau between Hallstatt 
and Gosau. A small cave which contains ice. 

Eislunghohle. (Fugger, Eishohlen, page 24.) — A 
small cave between the Hochkasten and Ostrowiz in the 
Priel range. 

The Geldloch or Seelucken on the Oetscher. 
(Schmidl, Die Hohlen des Otscher and Die Oesterreich- 
ischen Hohlen; Cranmer and Sieger, Globus^ 1899, pages 
313-318, and ZZZ-ZZ^^ — The second known notice of a 



232 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

glaciere cave is the account of a visit to the Oetscher Caves 
in 1 59 1. After lying in manuscript for two and a half 
centuries, it was published by Dr. A. Schmidl in 1857, in 
Die Hohlen des (Dtscher, pages 21-36. According to the 
account, which is naive, but evidently truthful. Kaiser 
Rudolf II. ordered Reichard Strein, owner of the Herrschaff 
Friedeck, to investigate the Otscher and especially its 
caves. He did so, with the title of Kaiserlicher Com- 
missarius, and accompanied by the Bannerherr Christoph 
Schallenberger, Hans Gasser, and eleven porters. On 
September the i6th, 1591, they visited the Seeliicken, 
where they found a lake in the front of the cave, and 
where the party had great difficulties in climbing round 
on to the ice. 

The Seellicken on the Oetscher is situated at an alti- 
tude of 1470 meters. It opens nearly due south. The 
ice floor is about 20 meters below the entrance and is 
about 38 meters long and 24 meters wide; at the 
rear, it rises for some 15 meters as an ice wall at an 
angle of about 60°, and then forms a second ice floor 
about 45 meters long by 19 meters wide. The front part 
of the ice is sometimes, about July, covered with water. 
The cave continues further back, in two branches, and 
Professors Cranmer and Sieger consider that it is a large 
windhole, in which draughts are infrequent, on account 
.of its length and because the openings are near the 
same level. There are also several up and down curves 
and in these cold air remains and acts something like 
a cork in stopping draughts. 



LIST OF GLACIERES. 233 

On the 13th of September there were no draughts, and 
the temperatures between ii A. M. and 12 M. were : — 

Outside air +7.1° 

Inside near entrance +1.5° 

A little further in +1.1° 

At the lowest point near ice +0.8° 

On the 31st of October, 1897, there was a draught, 
which followed the curves of the cavern, and which flowed 
out at the southern end. The temperatures were : — 

Outside air +3-7° 

Inside near entrance +1.3° 

At the lowest point near ice +0.8° 

On the second, higher ice floor . . . +1.0° 

In the main passage behind ice . . . . -f 1.4° 

Cave on the Kuhfotzen near Warsheneck. (Fug- 
ger, Eishohlen, page 25.) — A small cave containing ice. 

EiSKELLER ON THE Rax. (Fugger, Eishoklen, page 2 5 ; 
Cranmer, Eishohlen, etc., page 61.) — Altitude about 1660 
meters. A doline with a small cave at the bottom, in 
which melting snow was found on the 19th of Septem- 
ber, 1896. 

The Tablerloch. (Cranmer, Eishbhlen, etc., pages 
19-60.) — On the Diirren-Wand in the mountains south of 
Vienna, 2 hours distant from Miesenbach R. R. station. 
Altitude about 1000 meters. Entrance 7 meters wide, 3.5 
meters high. Slope 30° from entrance. Lowest point 22 
meters below entrance. Extreme length of cave 50 



234 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

meters, width 23 meters, height 15 meters. Professor 
Cranmer found fresh ice beginning to form on the 12th 
of November, 1893 ' ^^ ^he ist of December, 1894; ^.nd 
on the 20th of October, 1895. ^^ found it melting away 
on the 3d of June, 1894 > ^^ ^^e ist of June, 1895 5 ^.nd 
on the 31st of May, 1896. The rates at which the ice 
formed or melted, however, were not always the same in 
different parts of the cave. The greatest amount of ice 
observed seems to have been in March and April. In the 
summer months no perceptible movements of air seem to 
have been noticed. This was also sometimes the case in 
the winter months, during which, however, movements of 
air were at other times plainly perceptible. 

The Gipsloch. (Cranmer, Eishohlen, etc., page 60.) — 
A small cave on the Hohen-Wand near Wiener-Neustadt. 
It is rather a cold cave than a glaciere. 

The Windloch. (Cranmer, Eishbhlen, etc., page 61.) — 
On the Hohen-Wand near Wiener Neustadt. Small cave. 
Snow found in it on June the 2d, 1895. 

Eisloch in the Brandstein on the Hochschwab. 
(Cranmer, Eishohlen, etc., page 64.) — Altitude about 1600 
meters. A moderately large cave. On the 21st of Au- 
gust, 1895, there was an ice floor 10 meters long and 5 
meters broad. Temperature in rear of cave, — 0.2°. 

Caves on the Beilstein. (Krauss, Hohlenkunde, 
1894, pages 207-219; Cranmer, Eishohlen, etc., page 



LIST OF GLACIERES. 235 

62,.) — These lie about 4 hours on foot from Gams in Steier- 
mark, at an altitude of 1260 meters, in a place where the 
mountain is much broken up by fissures and snow basins. 
The large cave has two openings, from which steep snow 
slopes descend. The cave is 60 meters long, 1 5 meters to 
18 meters broad, and about 7 meters high. Clefts in the 
rock in two places lead to two lower, small ice chambers. 
In the neighborhood of the large cave are two small ones. 
Prof. Cranmer found fresh ice in the Beilsteinhohle on the 
20th of August, 1895. Two days before, fresh snow had 
fallen on the neighboring mountain peaks. 

EiSHOHLE ON THE Brandstein. (Cranmer, Eishohlen, 
etc., page 62.) — A small cleft cave near the Langried- 
leralm near Gams in Steiermark. On the 20th of August, 
1895, ^^ contained some ice. 

The Frauenmauerhohle. — Described in Part I., 
page zi' 

The Barenloch near Eisenerz. (Fugger, Eishbhlen, 
page 28.) — In the neighborhood of the Frauenmauerhohle. 
Altitude 1600 meters. A steep snow slope leads to an ice 
floor 13 meters long. 

The Katerloch. (Fugger, Eishoklen, page 29.) — On 
the Goserwand near Diirnthal, Glemeinde Gschaid in 
Steiermark. A large cave, some 190 meters long and 80 



236 GLACI^RES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

meters wide. A thin ice crust has been found on parts of 
the walls in the rear. 

Caves in the Stein Alps. (Fugger, Eishohlen, page 
29.) — The plateau of Velica Planina lies, at an altitude of 
1600 meters, 9 kilometers north of Stein in the Duchy 
of Krain. There are three caves containing ice on the 
plateau. The first is a big one and is called V. Kofcih. 
The second is called Mala Veternica. The third and big- 
gest is called Velika Veternica ; its length is about 100 
meters and its breadth 30 meters. 

Glaciere Caves on the Nanos Mountain. (Fugger, 
EisJidhle7i, page 34.) — In the southwestern Krain, 5 kilo- 
meters from Prawald. There are four caves containing ice 
reported on the Nanos mountain. Two of them are big. 
The altitude of one of these is 1300 meters, of the other 
1350 meters. 

Brlowa Jama. (Fugger, Eishohlen, page 36.) — Seven 
kilometers from Adelsberg. Small glaciere cave. 

KosovA Jama. (Fugger, Eishohlen, page 38.) — Near 
Divacca. Forty meters long, 20 meters broad. 

Glaciere near Adelsberg. (Fugger, Eishohlen, page 
36.) — Small cave. One hour from Adelsberg. 

Kacna Jama. (J. Marinitsch, La Kacna Jama, Mem- 
oires de la Societe de Speleologie, vol. I., page 83.) — A 
great pit near the railroad station of Divacca. Herr Mar- 



LIST OF GLACIERES. 237 

initsch observed the following temperatures on January 

2d, 1896: — 

At Divacca — 2° C. 

In the Kacna Jama at 40 meters . . . — 1.1° C. 

*' " " " " 100 meters . . + 1.2" C. 

*' " *' " " 210 meters . . +2.1° C. 

Sanct Canzian, Karst. (E. A. Martel, Les Adzmes, 
page 564, note.) — During the winter of 1 889-1 890, Herr 
Marinitsch found stalactites of ice as far as the seven- 
teenth cascade of the Recca; 1000 meters from the third 
entrance of the river. The temperature of the Recca 
was then at 0° ; during the summer, the temperature of 
the water rises to 27° (?). 

The Grosses Eisloch of Paradana. (Fugger, £zs- 
hbhlen, page 36.) — On the high plateau of the forest of 
Tarnowa, east of Gorz. A large pit cave, 30 meters to 
40 meters deep. Professor Fugger says of it: ''The 
flora in the basin-like depression has the character of high 
mountain vegetation, with every step it resembles more 
this flora as it exists in the neighborhood of glaciers, until 
finally in the deepest point of the basin all vegetation 
stops." 

The Kleines Eisloch of Paradana. (Fugger, Eis- 
hoklen, page 2>7*) — A small pit glaciere, 500 meters dis- 
tant from the Grosses Eisloch of Paradana. 

SucHY Brezen. (Fugger, Eishohlen, page 'i^']}j — A 
small pit glaciere, situated about midway between the 
Grosses and Kleines Eisloch of Paradana. 



238 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

Prevalo Cave. (Fugger, Eishohlen, page 37.) — In 
the Buchenhochwald, south of Karnica. Small glaciere. 

Cave of Dol. (Fugger, Eishohlen, page 38.) — On a 
mountain near Haidenschaft. Small glaciere. 

Glaciere near Matena in Bezirke Radmansdorf. 
(Petruzzi in Haidinger's Berichte, etc., vol. VII., page 
68.)— On a wooded height. The ice commences to melt 
in the early summer. 

Glaciere on the Schutzengelberge near the Golac. 
(Petruzzi in Haidinger's Berichte, etc., vol. VII., page 
64.) — A small glaciere. 

Glaciere Cave near Lazhna-gora or Latzenberg. 
(Valvasor, Die Ehre des Herzogthumes Grain, vol. I., pages 
242, 243; Hacquet, Oryctographia Carniolica, 1778, III., 
page 159.) — In the neighborhood of Vishnagora in the 
Krain. The entrance is under a church. It is a large 
cave, 40 meters long and 20 meters high, where the ice 
all melts by the end of the summer. Valvasor gives the 
following account of this cave in 1689, which seems the 
first printed notice of a glaciere in German : — 

'' Near to Lazchenberg up by the church of St. Nicho- 
las, where a Thabor stands, one finds a big hole, which 
sinks into the stony rocks. Through this one descends 
deep with torches : there opens then underneath as big a 
cavity as the biggest church could be, and the same is ex- 
tremely high, in the form of a cupola. One sees there 



LIST OF GLACIERES. 239 

different teeth, formed and hardened from the water turned 
to stone. Further down one arrives to a deep gully : into 
which, however, I have not been. On the other side one 
must again ascend, and then one comes again to a cupola : 
in which cupola ice stands up like an organ from the earth. 
''There also one sees icicles of pure ice of different 
sizes and heights, of which many are one or two klafters 
high and as thick as a man ; but many only two or three 
spans high or higher, and as thick as an arm, and some also 
thinner. This ice is formed from the drops of falling 
water ; and indeed in summer ; for in winter there is no 
ice therein. Over such ice one must then ascend, as 
there are then said to be separate holes and grottoes. 
But no one has been any further." 

Glaci^re on the Dini Verh. (Petruzzi in Haidinger's 
Berichte, etc., vol. VII., page 6"]^ — Near Tomischle in the 
Krain. Small glaciere. 

EisKELLER NEAR RossECK. (Petruzzi in Haidinger's 
Berichte, etc., vol. VII., page 64.) — On the Pograca Moun- 
tain in the Krain, northeast of the Hornwald, near the 
Meierhof Rosseck. Small glaciere cave. 

Gorge near Rosseck. (Valvasor, Die Ehre des Her- 
zogthumes Grain, vol. I., page 243 and page 517 ; Petruzzi 
in Haidinger s Berichte, etc., vol. VII., page 64.) — Behind 
the ruined castle of Rosseck, on the Pograca Mountain 
in the Krain, is a gorge, at whose bottom are four little 
holes containing ice most of the year. 



240 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

Valvasor wrote of this cave in 1689: ''Near Rosseck 
immediately back of the castle there opens a mighty cavern 
entirely in stony rock, and yawns in the shape of a caul- 
dron down into the earth. Above as wide as a good rifle 
shot, but below quite narrow. And there underneath 
there are many holes where the ice remains through the 
whole summer. From such ice have Duke Frederick Graf 
and Duke von Gallenberg daily made use in summer to 
cool their wine. Six years ago I descended there in the 
month of August, and found ice enough in all the holes." 

In the same volume Freiherr Valvasor elaborates his 
remarks about this cave and that at Latzenberg, repeating 
in the main the observations in the paragraph just given. 
He says: "There hang also long icicles which are quite 
pleasant to look at. * ^ * This ice breaks all too easily 
and quickly. * * * Contrarywise, however, this ice lasts 
much longer in the sun and the heat than other ice. * * * 
Some might think it would eventually turn into stone : this, 
however, does not happen : for it remains only in summer 
and disappears in winter : as I can say for certain, as I have 
been in myself in the winter as well as in the summer time. 
* * * For as in the summer the floor is quite covered 
with ice: it makes walking so dangerous and bad that one 
cannot take a step without climbing irons ; but in the win- 
ter time one goes safely and well. * * * " 

Freiherr Valvasor was evidently an accurate observer, 
and, if for his word "winter" we substitute "autumn," his 
account will be much more nearly correct than might have 
been expected two centuries ago. 



LIST OF GLACIERES. 24 1 

The Kuntschner Eishohle. (Petruzzi in Haidinger's 
Berichte, etc., vol. VII., pages 65, 66?^ — This is known also 
as the Toplitzer, Unterwarmberger or Ainodter Grotto. It 
lies 2 kilometers from Kuntschen, and 12 kilometers from 
Toplitz near Neustadtel, in the Krain. Altitude about 630 
meters. Petruzzi says: '' Of all so far noticed ice grottoes 
it is the most wonderful and splendid." In August and 
September, 1 849, the temperatures near the ice were about 
two degrees above freezing. On the i6th of August, there 
were many long ice stalagmites and stalactites ; on the 
29th of September they had diminished materially. Petruzzi 
says also: ''One leaves the abundant vegetation of the 
Alpine summer flora, and through bushes and dwarf un- 
derbrush, through bare and half moss covered rocks and 
debris, through rotten and twisted tree stems, one comes 
to the hall of eternal winter, where the microscopic mosses 
of the north surround the thousand year old stalactites, 
hanging from the dripping vault, with an always passing, 
always freshly forming, tender sulphur colored down." 
Dr. Schwalbe has also examined this cave. 

The Friedrichsteiner or Gottscheer Eishohle. — 
Described in Part I., page 51. 

The Handler Eisloch. — 7 kilometers south of Gott- 
schee and about twenty minutes from the village of Hand- 
lern, near Rieg. Altitude 596 meters. Small cave. Pro- 
fessor Hans Satter of Gottschee told me he doubted 
whether ice ever formed there now. 



242 GLACI^RES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

The Suchenreuther Eisloch. — Described in Part I., 
page 55. 

Ledenica na Veliki Gori. (Petruzzi in Haidinger's 
Berichte, etc., vol. VII., page 6*]^ — In the Krain, 11 kilo- 
meters from Reifnitz, on the Balastena Mountain. Alti- 
tude 1253 meters. Much ice was found there on the 
loth of July, 1834. 

Mrzla Jama. (Fugger, Eishohlen, page 34.) — On the 
Innerkrainer Schneeberg, 13 kilometers from Laas. 

Glaciere Caves on the Kapella. Fugger, Eishbhlen, 
page 39.) — On a pass in the neighborhood of Piacenza. 
Altitude 800 meters. 

Glaciere Cave in West Bosnia. (Fugger, Eishohlen. 
page 39.) — West of Kljuc, county Petrovac, district Smol- 
jama, near village Trvanj. Called Trvanj, also Ledenica, 
Altitude about 1000 meters, length 170 meters, breadth 
from 4 meters to 30 meters. 

Rtanj, Servia. (A. Boue, La Turquie d' Europe, 1840, 
vol. I., page 132 ; Dr. A. Cvijic, Spelunca, vol. II., 1896, 
pages 72-74.) — This glaciere is on the south side of Siljak, 
near the village Muzinac. A passage 60 meters long leads 
to a hall about 10 meters in height. Dr. Boue found snow 
here in August, the thermometer standing below freezing 
point. The people in the neighborhood told Dr. Boue 



LIST OF GLACIERES. 243 

that the snow is formed in June and disappears in Sep- 
tember and that it is sometimes carried to Nisch. He 
also heard of similar cavities on the Bannat Mountain. 
Dr. Cvijic observed in the hall a temperature of 4- 0.4° C. 

Ledena Pec, Servia. (Dr. A. Cvijic, Spelunca, vol. II., 
1896, pages 68, 69.) — On the Ledini Verh or Glacial Peak, 
at an altitude of 800 meters ; distant one hour and a half 
from the village of Sou void. Length of passage 108 me- 
ters; at entrance about 6 meters, at end about 15 meters 
in height. On the loth of May, 1893, there was plenty 
of ice and snow. Temperature of outside air +19° C. ; 
inside air at rear +0.5° C. Probably permanent glaciere. 

DoBRA Ledenica, Servia. (Dr. A. Cvijic, Spelunca^ 
vol. II., 1896, page 70.) — West of Ledeno Brdo. Probably 
periodic glaciere. On July 25th, 1890, the temperature of 
the outside air was + 26° C. ; of the inside air +3.5° C, 
Ledenica is the name for a glaciere in Servia. 

Ledenica in the Mala Brezovica, Servia. (Dr. A. 
Cvijic, Spelunca, vol. II., 1896, page 70.) — Length 43 me- 
ters. A large, permanent glaciere. On July 28th, 1890, 
the outside air was -H 23^: inside air + 2°. 

Ledenica Treme in the Souva Planina, Servia. 
(Cvijic, Dr. A., Spelunca, vol. II., 1896, page 71.) — Altitude 
1600 meters to 1700 meters. A rather large, probably 
permanent glaciere. Plenty of ice in it on April 21st, 
1894. 



244 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

Zla Ledenica, Servia. (Dr. A. Cvljic, Spehcnca, vol. 
II., 1896, page 72.) — On the Kucaj. A permanent glaci- 
ere, 7 meters or 8 meters deep. On July 25th, 1890, out- 
side air -j- 25° ; inside air at snow + 6°. 

Glaciere on the Devica, Servia. (Dr. A. Cvijic, 
Spelicnca, vol. II., 1896, page 74.) — Under the peak La- 
zurevica. Altitude 1000 meters. A narrow passage leads 
to a hall 17 meters long by 12 meters wide and 20 meters 
high. On June 30th, 1893, there was plenty of snow in 
the passage and ice in the hall. 

Glaciere Vlaska Pecura, Servia. (Dr. A. Cvijic, 
Spehuicay vol. II., 1896, page 74.) — On the Devica, under 
the Golemi Vech. A small periodic glaciere. 

Glaciere in the Zdrebica, Servia. (Dr. A. Cvijic, 
Spelu7ica, vol. II., 1896, page 74.) — On the southeast side 
of the Souva Planina, near the village Veliki Krtchimir. 
A small periodic glaciere. On April 20th, 1874, plent}^ 
of snow and ice. 

Glaciere Stoykova, Servia. (Dr. K. Cvijic, Spehmca, 
vol. II., 1896, pages 75, ']6}j — On the Kucaj. A large pit 
cave with a total depth of 23 meters. Probably a per- 
manent glaciere. On July 21st, 1890, plenty of ice and 
snow. Outside air +21°; inside air in hall +0.5°. 

Glaciere on the Topiznica Mountain, Servia. 
(Dr. A. Cvijic, Spehcnca, vol. II., 1896, page 76.) — Altitude 



LIST OF GLACIERES. 245 

1 100 meters. A large pit cave with an extreme depth 
of 27 meters. In August, 1893, there was plenty of snow 
and ice, and the inside temperature was +1°. 

Glaciers Cave near Borszek. (Bielz, Siebenbilrgen, 
1885, page 334.) — About an hour distant from the baths, 
in broken limestone. It seems to be a rock fissure, at 
the end of which ice is found till towards the middle of 
July. 

Glaciere Cave near Sonkolyos in the Koros Val- 
ley. (Fugger, EishdhleUy page 51.) — Small cave. 

Glaciere near Zapodia. (Fugger, Eishohlen^ pa-ge 
50.) — Near Petrosc in the Bihar Mountains. Altitude 
1 1 40 meters; length 20 meters, width 7 meters. 

Pescerca la Jesere. (Fugger, Eishohlen, page 50.) — 
Between Vervul la Belegiana and the Batrlna in the Bihar 
Mountains. Small freezing cave. 

Glaciere Cave near Verespatak, in Transylvania. 
(Bielz, Siebenbilrgen^ pa-ge 52.) — Small cave. 

Gietariu near Funacza. (Fugger, Eishohlen, page 
50.) — In the Bihar Mountains. Small glaciere cave. 

Cave of Skerizora. (Karl F. Peters, Sitzungsbericht 
der K. K. Akademie der Wissenchaften, Wien, vol. XLIIL, 
1861, page 437; Bielz, Siebenbilrgen, 1885, page '^']^ — 
This is one of the greatest glaciere caves known. It 



246 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

lies in the Bihar Mountains, three hours from the village 
of Ober-Girda, which can be reached from Gyula Fehervar, 
via Topanfalva. It is a pit cave, in limestone, at an alti- 
tude of 1 1 27 meters. The pit is about 57 meters broad, 
and 45 meters deep, with exceedingly steep walls. The 
entrance is in the northeast wall and is about 10 meters 
high. This leads into a nearly circular hall 47 meters in 
diameter and about 20 meters high. The floor is ice. In 
the southeast corner is a hole over 75 meters deep. In 
the northwest wall is an opening 14 meters wide, which 
forms the beginning of a sort of gallery 54 meters long 
and which at its further end is 24 meters wide and 8 meters 
high. This is also covered with a flooring of ice, which in 
some places can only be descended by step cutting. This 
passage is also richly adorned with ice stalactites and stal- 
agmites. At its end is another also nearly circular hall, 
21 meters in diameter and about 22 meters high. This 
is called the ' Beszerika' or church. In one place there 
is a magnificent collection of ice stalagmites called the 
"Altar." Peters found in dirt on the sides of the cave 
remains of bats not very different from those now living 
in the vicinity. He thinks the bats may have come there 
before the cave became a glaciere ; or else that they 
may even now sometimes get into the first hall and there 
perish from cold. This makes it uncertain, therefore, 
whether the remains can be considered as of the past 
or the present. 

EiSHOHLE BEi RoTH. — Described in Part I., page 35. 



LIST OF GLACIERES. 247 

Mines on the Eisenberg. (Fugger, Eishohlen, page 
59.) — These lie near Blankenburg in the Thliringer Wald 
and have been known to contain ice. 

The Ziegenloch or Grosses Kalte Loch, and the 
Kleines Kalte Loch. (Behrens, Hercynia Curiosa, 
pages 6^, 70.) — These He near Questenberg in the 
Southern Harz Mountains, at an altitude of about 300 
meters. The Grosses Loch is described as a sort of small 
pit some 8 meters deep, in one side of which opens a small 
fissure some 10 meters long. Ice has been found in this 
in April ; Schwalbe found none there in July. The Kleines 
Loch was another small cold cave near the Ziegenloch, but 
it has been filled up. Behrens says that the dampness at 
the cave at Questenberg is precipitated as snow. 

Holes with Ice near Sanct Blasien. (Fugger, 
EishokleUy page 109.) — In the Black Forest, among 
boulders at an altitude of 820 meters. 

Holes with Ice near Hochenschwand. (Fugger, 
Eishbhlen, page 109.) — In the Black Forest, among 
boulders at an altitude of 820 meters. 

EissTOLLEN and Eiskeller AT THE DoRNBURG. De- 
scribed in Part I., page 59. (Poggendorff's Annalen der Phy- 
sik und Chemie, Ergdnzungsband, 1842, pages 517-519.) — 
Ice appears to have been discovered at the Dornburg 
in June, 1839. It was found from a depth of 60 centi- 
meters down to 8 meters. The width of the ice-bearing 



248 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

talus was from 1 2 meters to 1 5 meters ; and it is said 
that it becomes wider in winter and narrower in summer. 

Beschertgluck Mine, Freiberg District. (Prestwich, 
Collected papers, etc., page 206.) — Mr. Prestwich quotes 
Daubuisson as having seen the shaft of the mine Hned 
with ice to a depth of 80 toises (144 meters?). 

Ice in the Zinc Mines on the Sauberg. (Reich, 
Beobachtungen ilber die Temper atur des Gesteines, 1834, 
pages 175 and 205.) — These are near Ehrenfriedersdorf 
in Saxony and formerly contained ice in winter. They 
are reported now to be destroyed. 

The Garische Stollen. (Lohman, Das HohleneiSy 
etc., page 3.) — Near Ehrenfriedersdorf in the Freiwald. 
Lohman found much ice in this in January, less in March, 
and scarcely any in May. 

The Ritterhohle. (Lohman, Das Hohleneis, page 5.) — 
Near Ehrenfriedersdorf in the Freiwald. Small ice deposit. 
The rock is granite. 

The Stulpnerhohle. (Lohman, Das Hohleneis, page 
6.) — Near the Ritterhohle. Small ice deposit in granite 
rock. 

ElSLOCH AND ElSHOHLE NEAR GeYER IN SaXONY. (Loh- 

man, Das Hohleneis, page 7.) — These are in a place 
called die Binge. Both are small. 



LIST OF GLACIERES. 249 

The Alte Thiele. (Lohman, Das Hohleneis, page 
8.) — Near Buchholz in Saxony. Small ice deposit. 

Mine Pits in the Saxon Erzgebirge. (Reich, Beobach- 
tungen ilber die Temperatur des Gesteines, 1834.) — Ex- 
tremely low temperatures have been found in several of 
these pits: — 

In the Churprinz Friedrich August Erbstollen near 
Freiberg. 

In the Heinrichs-Sohle in the Stockwerk near Altenberg. 

In the Henneberg Stollen, on the Ingelbach, near 
Johanngeorgenstadt. 

In the Weiss-Adler-Stollen, on the left declivity of the 
valley of the Schwarzwasser, above the Antonshlitte. 

Holes Holding Ice on the Saalberg. {Annalen der 
Physik und Chemie, 1850, LXXXL, page 579.) — These lie 
between Saalberg and the Burgk. Ice is found here on 
the surface from June to the middle of August. From 
the observations of Professor Hartenstein, Fugger de- 
duces that this place must be the lower end of one or 
more windholes. 

Millstone Quarry of Niedermendig. (M. A. Pictet, 
Memoir es de la Societe d' Histoire Naturelle de Geneve, 1 82 1 , 
vol. I., page 151.) — On the Niederrhein. There are many 
connecting pits and galleries here, in which ice has been 
found in the hottest days of summer as well as in March. 
The abandoned shafts are utilized as beer cellars. 



250 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

EiSGRUBE ON THE Umpfen. (Voigt, Miner alogtsc he 
Reisen dttrch das Herzogthum Weimar, 1785, vol. II., page 
123.) — In the Rh5ngebirge, twenty minutes from Kalten- 
nordheim, are some irregular masses of columnar basalt, at 
an altitude of about 500 meters, among which abundant 
ice has been found up to late in the summer. 

Cave near Muggendorf, Franconia. — The landlord of 
the Kurhaus Hotel at Muggendorf, told me that there was 
a small cave in the vicinity where there was ice in the 
winter and spring, but that it all melted away before 
August. 

Cave on the Durrberg. (Fugger, Eishbhlen, page 
59.) — Near Zwickau in Bohemia. Small cave which some- 
times contains ice. 

The Schneebinge. (Lohman, Das Hohleneis, page 
II.) — Near Flatten in Bohemia. A small ice deposit in 
an old mine. 

Ice among Basaltic Rocks on the Pleschiwitz. 
(Pleischl, in Poggendorff 's Annalen der Physik und Chemie, 
vol. LIV., 1 84 1, pages 292-299.) — Above Kameik near 
Leitmeritz in Bohemia. Professor Pleischl, in May, 1834, 
found ice under the rocks a little distance from the sur- 
face. The surface of the rocks was then warm. On the 
2 1 St of January, 1838, Professor Pleischl found snow on 



LIST OF GLACIERES. 25 1 

the outside of the rocks, but no ice underneath. He was 
assured by the people of the district that the hotter the 
summer, the more ice is found. 

Glaciere on the Zinkenstein. (Pleischl, in Poggen- 
dorff's Amialen der Physik und Chemie, vol. LIV., 1841, 
page 299). — The Zinkenstein is one of the highest points 
of the Vierzehnberge, in the Leitmeritz Kreis. There is a 
deep cleft in basalt, where ice has been found in summer. 

EiSLocHER ON THE Steinberg. (Pleischl, in Poggen- 
dorff's Annalen der Physik und Chemie, vol. LIV., 1841, 
page 299.) — In the Herrschaft Konoged. Small basalt 
talus where ice is found in the hottest weather. 

Windholes in Bohemia. (Fugger, Eiskohlen, page 
109.) — In the neighborhood of Leitmeritz. These are 
in basaltic rock. Ice sometimes forms at the lower ex- 
tremity. The most notable are — 

On the Steinberg near Mertendorf on the Triebschbach ; 

On the Kelchberg near Triebsch ; 

On the Kreuzberg near Leitmeritz ; 

On the Rodersberg near Schlackenwerth ; 

In the Grossen Loch near Tschersink. 

Ice in a Pit near Neusohl. (Fugger, Eiskohlen, page 
109.) 

The Frainer Eisleithen. Described in Part I., page 
33. (Fugger, Eishohlen, page 163.) Professor Fugger 



252 



GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 



quotes the following 


observations 


by 


Forester Wachtl at 


Frain : — 










1861. 




1862. 


January .... 


— 7° to —2° 




— 5° 


February . . . . 


— 2° to 0° 




— 5° to — 2° 


March . . . . . 


0° to + I"* 




— 1° to 0" 


April 


. + 1° to + 2° 




0° 


May 


. H-2° 




+ 2° to + 5° 


June 


+ 2° to H- 3° 




+ 3° to + 6° 


July 


. +3° 




+ 3° to + 5° 


August 


+ 3° to + 7° 




+ 5° 


September . . 


. + 7° to + 6° 




+ 3° to + 6° 


October .... 


+ 6° 




+ 5° 


November . . . 






+ 5° 


December . . . 


— 1° to — 3° 




0° to — 2° 



Demenyfalva Jegbarlang. Described in Part I., 
page 24. 

DoBsiNA Jegbarlang. Described in Part I., page 13. 
(Pelech ; T/ie Valley of Strace^ia and the Dobschau Ice 
Cavern ; Schwalbe, Uber Eishohlen und Eislocher, page 
31.) — Pelech gives the following measurements: The 
Grosser Saal is 120 meters long, 35 meters to 60 meters 
wide, and 10 meters to 11 meters high, with a surface area 
of 4644 square meters. The ice mass is estimated as 
125,000 cubic meters in volume. The length of the Kor- 
ridor is 200 meters ; the left wing being 80 meters, and 
the right wing 1 20 meters long. The cave was first en- 
tered on July 15th, 1870, by Herr Eugene Ruffiny, of 
Dobsina, and some friends. He had happened to fire a 
gun in front of it, and hearing a continuous muffled 
rolling echo within, determined to explore it. 



LIST OF GLACIERES. 



253 



Dr, Schwalbe quotes the following series of observa- 
tions in Dobsina during the year 1881 : 



Year . 



ENTRANCE. GROSSER SAAL. 



DEEPEST POINT FROMKORRIDOR 
OFKORRIDOR. TOKLEINEN SAAL. 



January . . . 


— 2.2° 


— 4.2° 


2.2° 


— 0.6° 


February . . . 


— 1.2° 


— 3.4° 


— 1.9° 


— 0.3° 


March . . . . 


— 1.4° 


— 2.1° 


0.9° 


0.2° 


April . . . , 


— 0.25° 


—1.25° 


— 0.7° 


+ 0.3° 


May .... 


+ 0.7° 


+ 0.9' 


— 0.5° 


+ 0.5° 


June .... 


+ 1.0" 


+1.5° . 


— 0.5° 


+ 0.5° 


July .... 


. +1.8° 


+ 2.1° 


+ 0.2° 


+ 1.1° 


August . . . 


. +3.4° 


+ 3.8° 


+ 0.24° 


+ 0.8° 


September . 


. + 2.0° 


+ 2.3° 


— 0.3° 


— 0.15° 


October . . 


. — 0.2° 


+ 0.2° 


— 0.5° 


0.2° 


November 


. —1-3° 


— 1.9° 


0.6° 


— 0.3° 


December 


2.2* 


— 3.2° 


— 0.65° 


—1.75° 



+ 0.04 — 0.44° 



0.69' 



0.02' 



The Philadelphia Evenmg Bulletin, March, ist, 1899, 
printed the following note about Dobsina : '' In this cave, 
some sixteen years ago, a couple named Kolcsey elected 
to pass the week immediately following their marriage. 
They took with them a plentiful supply of rugs, blankets 
and warm clothing, but notwithstanding all precautions, 
their experience was not of a sufficiently pleasant nature 
to tempt imitators." 



Lednica of Szilize. (M. Bel, Philosophical Transac- 
tions^ London, 1739, vol. XLI., page 41 et seq. ; Townson, 
Travels in Hungary^ 17975 Terlanday, Petermanns Mitt- 
heilungen, 1893, page 283.) — It lies 1.5 kilometers from the 
village of Szilize, near Rosenau, in Gomor County, in the 



254 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

Carpathians, at an altitude of 460 meters. A pit about 35 
meters deep, 75 meters long, and 48 meters wide opens in 
the ground, and at the southern end, in the perpendicular 
wall, is the cave. The entrance is 22 meters wide, 15 
meters high, and faces north. A slope 4 meters long sinks 
with an angle of 35° to the floor of the cave, which is nearly 
circular in form, with a diameter of about 10 meters. On 
the east side of the cave there seems to be a hole in the 
ice some 10 meters deep. 

In 1739, there was published in London a curious letter 
in Latin from Matthias Bel , a Hungarian savant, about the 
cavern of Szilize. He says : "The nature of the cave has 
this of remarkable, that, when outside the winter freezes 
strongest, inside the air is balmy : but it is cold, even icy, 
when the sun shines warmest. As soon as the snow 
melts and spring begins, the inner roof of the cave, 
where the midday sun strikes the outside, begins to 
sweat clear water, which drops down here and there ; 
through the power of the inner cold it turns to trans- 
parent ice and forms icicles, which in thickness equal 
large barrels and take wonderful shapes. What as water 
drops from the icicles to the sandy floor, freezes up, 
even quicker, than one would think. 

'' The icy nature of the cave lasts through the whole 
summer, and what is most remarkable, it increases with the 
increasing heat of the sun. In the beginning of the spring 
the soft winter's warmth begins to give way soon there- 
after, and when spring is more advanced, the cold sets in, 
and in such a manner, that the warmer does the (outside) 



LIST OF GLACIERES. 255 

air grow, the more does the cave cool off. And when the 
summer has begun and the dog days glow, everything 
within goes into icy winter. Then do the drops of water 
pouring from the roof of the cave change into ice, and with 
such rapidity that where to-day delicate icicles are visible, 
to-morrow masses and lumps, which fall to the ground, 
appear. Here and there, where the water drips down the 
walls of the cave, one sees wonderful incrustations, like an 
artificial carpeting. The rest of the water remains hanging 
on the ice, according to the warmth of the day. For when 
for a longer time it is warmer, the ice of the stalactites, of 
the walls and of the floor increases ; but when the ruling 
heat, as sometimes happens, is diminished through north 
winds or rainstorm, the waters freeze more slowly, the ice 
drips more fully and begins to form little brooklets. When 
however the temperature gets warmer, the icy nature of 
the cave begins once more. Some have observed, that the 
nature of the grotto receives the changes of temperature 
ahead, like a barometer. For, when a warmer tempera- 
ture sets in outside, the waters change into ice, several 
hours before the heat sets in, while the opposite takes 
place, when by day the temperature is colder ; for then 
even by the warmest sky the ice begins to melt notice- 
ably. 

''When the dog days have passed and the summer 
has already changed into fall, the cave with its own nature 
follows the conditions of the external air. In the early 
months and while the nights are growing colder, the ice 
diminishes visibly ; then when the air cools off more and 



256 GLACI^RES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

more and when the brooks and side are rigid with frost, it 
begins to melt as though there was a fire built underneath, 
until, when winter reigns, it is entirely dry in the cave, 
without a sign of ice being left behind. Then gentle 
warmth spreads into the entire cave, and this icy grave 
becomes a safety resort for insects and other small ani- 
mals, w^hich bear the winter with difficulty. But besides 
swarms of flies and gnats, troops of bats and scores of 
owls, hares and foxes take up their abode here, until with 
the beginning of spring, the cave once more assumes its 
icy appearance." 

These assertions of Bel are the most inaccurate ones 
made about glacieres. Yet, strange to say, they have col- 
ored the literature of the subject down to our own times ; 
and have been repeated many times, sometimes with, 
sometimes without, the hares and foxes ; the latest repeti- 
tion seeming to occur in 1883. 

Cave near the Village of Borzova, Torn a County, 
Carpathians. (Fugger, Eishohlen, page 52.) — Reported 
to contain ice, but nothing certainly known. 

CRIMEA. 

Ledianaia Yama. (Montpeyreux, Voyage autour du 
Caucase V., page 440 ; Hablizl, Description physique de la 
Tauride, 1783, pages 43-45.) — On the Karabi-Yaila, 32 
kilometers southwest of Karasubazar. Altitude about 
1800 meters. A fairly large pit glaciere cave. The name 
means an abyss of ice. 



list of glacieres. 257 

Glaciere Cave on the Yaila of Oulouzene at Ka- 
ZAUTE. (Montpeyreux, Voyage autour du Caucase, II., page 
380.) — A small pit cave. 

CAUCASUS. 

Glaciere Cave in the Khotevi Valley. (Montpey- 
reux, Voyage autour du Caucase, II., page 379.) — In the pro- 
vince of Radscha, near the Monastery Nikortsminda. A 
large pit cave which must be of the same order as that of 
Chaux-les-Passavant and from which the inhabitants of 
Kouta'is get ice. 

Glacieres near Koutais. (E. a. Martel, Les Abimes, 
page 397.) — ** Dr. A. Sakharov, it appears, has recently 
discovered in the government of Koutais caves containing 
ice." 

Cave of Sabazwinda. (Fugger, Eishohlen, page 
126.) — Near the town of Zorchinwall, on the river Liachwa, 
province of Gori, in Georgia, near the Ossete Mountains. 
Ice has been found in the cave in summer. In December 
there was none. 

URAL. 

Glaciere Cave near Sukepwa. (Fugger, Eishohlen, 
page 63.) — On the Volga, province of Zlatoust. Small 
cave on the river bank. 

Glaciere Cave on the Tirmen Tau. (Lepechin, 
Tagebuch der Reise, etc., vol. II., page 28.) — Near the 
village of Chaszina, 160 kilometers from Orenburg. 
Small cave. 



258 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

Glaciere CA^^ of Kurmanajeva. (Lepechin, Tagebiuk 
der Reise, etc., vol. II., page 5.) — Near Kurmanajeva, a 
village 49 kilometers from Tabinsk, in the Government 
of Orenburg. A large cave. Lepechin found ice in one 
part of the cave and deep water in another. There were 
draughts in some places. 

Cave on the Baislan Tasch. (Lepechin, Tagehuh der 
Reise, etc., II., page 40.) — The Baislan Tasch is a moun- 
tain on the right bank of the Bielaja River, which flows 
into the Kama. There is a large cave in the mountain 
in which ice has been found. 

Cave on the Muinak Tasch. (Lepechin, Tagebuch der 
Reise, etc., II., page 38.) — The Muinak Tasch is a moun- 
tain on the Bielaja River. There is a large cave in it, in 
which a little ice has been found. 

Cave of Kungur. (Lepechin, Tagebuch der Reise, etc., 
II., page 137 ; Rosenmliller and Tilesius, I., page 79.) — The 
Cavern of Kungur is near the town of Kungur in the 
Government of Perm. There are in it many passages 
and grottoes connecting with one another, some of which 
contain ice. It is a fine, large cave, whose greatest 
length is 400 meters. 

Mines of Kirobinskov. (Fugger, Eishohleii, page 65.) — 
These mines are 53 kilometers southeast of Miask in the 
Ural ; they have been abandoned. One of them contains 
ice all the year round. 



LIST OF GLACIERES. 259 

Caves of Illetzkaya-Zatschita. (Murchison, Vernieul 
and Keyserling, The Geology of Russia in Europe and the 
Ural Mountains, 1845, ^^' !•' P^-ge 186.) — 72 kilometers 
southeast from Orenburg. The caves are in the Kraoulnai- 
gora, a gypsum hillock 36 meters high, rising in the midst 
of an undulating steppe, which lies on a vast bed of rock 
salt. Only one of the caves contains ice. There are 
strong draughts in places. 

SIBERIA. 

Cave near the Fortress Kitschigina. (Fugger, Eis- 
hohlen, page 66.) — A small cave, 17 kilometers east of 
Kajilskoi, 192 kilometers from Petropaulowsk, 605 kilo- 
meters from Tobolsk. The cave is in an open plain, and 
sometimes contains ice. 

Wrechneja Petschera. (Fugger, Eishohlen, page 66.) — 
Near the village Birjusinska, in the neighborhood of Kras- 
nojarsk, on the right bank of the Yenisei. Large glaciere 
cave. 

Glaciere Cave of Balagansk. (Fugger, Eishohlen, 
page 66.) — A narrow cleft, 80 meters long; 192 kilome- 
ters downstream from Irkutsk on the left bank of the An- 
gora River ; at a distance of 2 kilometers from the river. 

Glaciere Cave on the Onon River. (Fugger, Eis- 
hohlen, page 66.) — A small cave ; 48 kilometers from the 
Borsja Mountain. 



26o GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

Mines of Siranowsk. (Fugger, Eishohle^i, page 
126.) — In the Altai Mountains, on the Buchtorma River, 
an affluent of the Irtysch. Magnificent ice formations 
have been found in these mines. 

Mines of Seventui. (Fugger, Eishbhlen, page 126.) — 
Near Nertschinsk, on the Amoor River. Two of the 
levels contain perennial ice and hence are called Ledenoi. 
These are at a depth of about 60 meters in porous lava. 
The rest of the mine is in more solid rock. 

Glaciere Cave near Lurgikan. (Fugger, Eishbhlen, 
page 6"]}^ — Near the confluence of the Lurgikan and 
Schilka Rivers, in the province Nertschinsk. From 2 
meters to 7 meters wide. Length 280 meters. 

Basins or Troughs Retaining Ice. (Dittmar, Ueber 
die Eismiildenim Ostlichen Siberien ; Middendorff, Zusatz ; 
Bulletin de la classe physico-mathematique de V Academie Im- 
periale des Sciences de St. Peter sbourg, 1853, vol. XL, pages 
305-316.) — These troughs are nearly akin to gorges and 
gullies, but their water supply seems to come from a 
cause which is not usually present in gorges. Their 
principal observer, M. de Dittmar, thought that a cold 
and snowy winter would add materially to the supply of 
ice, but he also thought that a necessity to the existence 
of the ice in these troughs was an abundant water supply 
from a spring, whose temperature should be so high as 
not to freeze in winter. The cold is supplied by the 



LIST OF GLACIERES. 26 1 

winter temperatures. Some of the most important are 
reported — 

In the Turachtach Valley. 

Near Kapitanskji Sasiek. 

In the valley of the River Belvi. 

In the valley of the River Antscha. 

In the Kintschen Valley. 

In the neighborhood of Kolymsk. 

In the Werchojanski Mountains. 

In the Stanowaj Mountains. 

KONDOOZ. 

Cave of Yeermallik. (Burslem, A peep into Toorkis- 
than, 1846, chaps. X., XI.)— In the valley of the Doaub, 
northwest of Kabul. The entrance is half way up a hill, 
and is about 15 meters wide and 15 meters high.,, This is 
a large cave, with many ramifications and galleries. In 
the centre of a hall far within, Captain Burslem found a 
mass of clear ice, smooth and polished as a mirror, and 
in the form of a beehive, with its dome-shaped top just 
touching the long icicles which depended from the 
jagged surface of the rock. A small aperture led into 
the interior of this cone, whose walls were about 60 
centimeters thick and which was divided into several 
compartments. Some distance from the entrance of this 
cave there is a perpendicular drop of 5 meters. A short 
distance beyond this, in one of the halls, were hundreds of 
skeletons of men, women and children, in a perfectly un- 
disturbed state, also the prints of a naked human foot and 



262 GLACI^RES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

the distinct marks of the pointed heel of an Afghan boot. 
The moollah, who was acting as guide, said the skeletons 
were the remains of seven hundred men of the Huzareh 
tribe who took refuge in the cave with their wives and 
children during the invasion of Genghis Khan, and who 
defended themselves so stoutly, that after trying in vain to 
smoke them out, the invader built them in with huge nat- 
ural blocks of stone, and left them to die of hunger. Some 
of the Afghans said that the cave was inhabited by 
Sheitan, a possibility denied by the moollah who guided 
Captain Burslem, on the philosophical plea that the cave 
was too cold for such an inhabitant. 

HIMALAYA. 

Glaciere Cave of Amarnath. (Miss Mary Coxe of 
Philadelphia showed me a copy of a letter of Dr. Wil- 
helmine Eger describing a visit to this cave.) — It lies three 
days' journey from Pailgam in Kashmere, on the borders 
of Little Tibet. The altitude is evidently high as one 
crosses snow fields to get to it. A small path zigzagging 
up a grassy slope leads to the cave and is a stiff climb 
from the valley. The cave opens on the side of a moun- 
tain and has a large, almost square mouth at least as big 
as the floor area within. The floor of the cave is the con- 
tinuation of the grass slope and slants upwards and back- 
wards to the back wall, the only case of the kind so far 
reported. This cave is most curiously connected with re- 
ligion. Dr. Eger says that there are two small blocks of 
ice in it which never melt. From time immemorial these 



LIST OF GLACIERES. 263 

blocks of ice have been sacred to the Hindoos who wor- 
ship them — as re-incarnations — under the names of Shiva 
and Ganesh. Dr. Eger saw offerings of rice and flowers 
on them. Thousands of pilgrims come every year at the 
end of July or beginning of August from all parts of 
India. Thousands of miles have been traversed and hun- 
dreds of lives laid down through this journey. Every 
year people die either before reaching the cave or after. 
The trip from Pailgam in Kashmere takes three days up 
and two days down, if one returns by a shorter route 
where the way is unsafe because of avalanches. So many 
have perished there that the pass is called ''The Way of 
Death." This must be taken by one class of pilgrims, 
Sard has or Holy Men, to complete the sacred circuit, 
but the Hindoos say any one dying on the pass will go 
straight to heaven. 

Icicles Formed by Radiation. (General Sir Richard 
Strachey, Geographical yournal, 1900, vol. XV., page 
168.) — On the Balch pass of the Balch range in Tibet, 
General Strachey, in 1848, saw icicles of which he says: 
" On the rocks exposed to the south were very^ curious 
incrustations of ice, icicles indeed, but standing out hori- 
zontally like fingers towards the wind. I was not able to 
understand how they were caused, nor can I tell why they 
were confined to particular spots. The thermometer stood 
at 41° [F.], and though the dew point at the time would 
probably have been below 32° [F.], and the cold pro- 
duced by evaporation sufficient therefore to freeze water. 



264 GLACI^RES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

yet it is evident that no condensation could ever take 
place simultaneously with the evaporation. ♦ * * j^ 
has since occurred to me that these icicles were formed 
by radiation. I found, subsequently, in a somewhat simi- 
lar position, that a thermometer suspended vertically, and 
simply exposed to the sky in front of it, was depressed as 
much as 20° F. below the true temperature of the sur- 
rounding air. This result was, of course, due to the 
radiation through the extremely dry and rarefied atmos- 
phere at the great elevation at which the thermometer 
was exposed. As radiation takes place freely from a 
surface of ice, the growth of such icicles as those described 
might be due to the condensation of vapour brought up 
by the southerly day winds that so constantly blow over 
these passes, and its accumulation in the form of ice on 
the exposed extremity of the icicle, the temperature of 
which might thus have been greatly reduced." 

INDIA. 

Ice Formed by Radiation. (T. A. Wise, Nature, 
vol. v., page 189; R. H. Scott, Eleme7itary Meteorology , 
Third Ed., pages 61, 62.) — Mr. Bunford Samuel called 
my attention to the mode of manufacturing ice by radia- 
tion in India. It is as follows : — 

** A very practical use of nocturnal radiation has been 
made from time immemorial in India in the preparation 
of ice, and on such a scale that about 10 tons of ice can 
be procured in a single night from twenty beds of the 
dimensions about to be given, when the temperature of 



LIST OF GLACIERES. 265 

the air is 15° or 20° [F.] above the freezing point. 
* ♦ ♦ -phe locality referred to is the immediate 
neighborhood of Calcutta. A rectangular piece of ground 
is marked out, lying east and west, and measuring 120 
by 20 feet. This is excavated to the depth of two feet 
and filled with rice straw rather loosely laid, to within six 
inches of the surface of the ground. The ice is formed 
in shallow dishes of porous earthenware, and the amount 
of water placed in each is regulated by the amount of ice 
expected. 

" In the cold weather, when the temperature of the air 
at the ice fields is under 50°, ice is formed in the dishes. 
The freezing is most active with N. N. W. airs, as these 
are driest; it ceases entirely with southerly or easterly 
airs, even though their temperature may be lower than 
that of the N. N. W. wind. 

" No ice is formed if the wind is sufficiently strong to 
be called a breeze, for the air is not left long enough at 
rest, above the bed, for its temperature to fall sufficiently, 
by the action of radiation. 

*' The rice straw, being kept loose and perfectly dry, 
cuts off the access of heat from the surface of the ground 
below it, and, when the sun goes down, the straw being a 
powerful radiator, the temperature of the air in contact 
with the dishes is reduced some 20° below that prevailing 
some two or three feet above them. The rapid evapora- 
tion of the water into the dry air above creates also an 
active demand for heat to be rendered latent in the forma- 
tion of steam, and the result of all these agencies is the 



266 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

formation of ice, under favorable circumstances, on the 
extensive scale above mentioned.** 

KOREA. 

Glaciere Cave on the Han Gang. — Messrs. J. Edward 
Farnum and George L. Farnum, of Philadelphia, inform me 
that they saw a small cave containing ice on the banks of 
one of the Korean rivers. It is about 75 kilometers from 
Seoul, nearly northeast, near the ferry where the old road 
leading from Seoul towards northern Korea crosses the 
Han Gang, the river which passes by Seoul. The en- 
trance is small ; perhaps 2 meters wide. The cave is not 
thoroughly explored. Ice lies near the entrance, and as 
far back as the Messrs. Farnum could see. 

JAPAN. 

Glaciere Lava Cave near Shoji. {Evening Telegraphy 
Philadelphia, January 2d, 18^6.) — The cave is about 12 
kilometers from Shoji, and is in lava. First there is a pit 
in the forest, some 5 meters wide by 15 meters deep. The 
cave opens into this. It seems to be some 400 meters 
long and from 2 meters to 12 meters high. There is an 
ice floor in places, also many ice stalagmites. At the 
furthest point reached there is a strong air current, which 
extinguishes torches and so far has prevented further ex- 
ploration. Ice from the cave has been cut by the country 
people for sale at Kofu, which is not far distant. 



PART IV. 



SOME OPINIONS ABOUT GLACIERES. 



SOME OPINIONS ABOUT GLACIERES. 



Benigne Poissenot, in 1586, hinted that the cold of 
winter produced the ice at Chaux-les-Passavant.^^ 

Reichard Strein and Christoph Schallenberger visited 
the caves on the Otscher in 1591.'^^ 

Gollut, in 1592, suggested the cold of winter as the 
cause of the ice at Chaux-les-Passavant.^^ 

In the Hist aire de V Academic Roy ale des Sciences^ 1686, 
Tome II., pages 2, 3, there is an account, with no author's 
name, of Chaux-les-Passavant. The memoir states that 
in winter the cave is filled with thick vapors and that after 
some trees were cut down near the entrance, the ice was 
less abundant than formerly : that people come for ice 
with carts and mules, but that the ice does not become 
exhausted, for one day of great heat forms more ice than 
could be carried away in eight days in carts and wagons : 
and that when a fog forms in the cave, there is assuredly 
rain the following day, and that the peasants in the neigh- 
borhood consult this curious ** almanac" to know the 
weather which is coming. 

^'See Part III. : page 193. 
'''See Part III. : page 231. 
'^ See Part III. : page 202. 

(269) 



270 GLACIlfcRES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

Freiherr Valvasor, in 1689, wrote about some of the 
glacieres of the Krain.'^^ 

Behrens, in 1703, thought it was colder in summer 
than in winter in the caves near Questenberg in the Harz. 

M. de Billerez, in 1712, writes that at Chaux-les-Passa- 
vant it is really colder in summer than in winter ; and that 
the ice is harder than river ice, and this he thinks is due 
to the presence of a nitrous or ammoniacal salt, which 
he says he found in the rocks. 

M. de Boz made four trips to Chaux-les-Passavant on 
the 15th of May and 8th of November, 1725 ; and the 8th 
of March and 20th of August, 1726. His memoir says 
that his observations tend to disprove those of M. de 
Billerez, and that ''the cause for the great cold, which is 
less great in summer, although always remaining, is quite 
natural." He cites as causes for the ice the exposure to 
the north-north-east ; the rock portal sheltering the en- 
trance, and all the forest covering the surrounding lands ; 
and adds that some veracious persons told him that since 
some of the big trees above the grotto had been cut 
down there was less ice than before. He found no traces 
of salt, nor any springs, and that the water supply came 
from the rains and melted snows filtering through the 
ground. 

" See Part III. : pages 238, 239. 



SOME OPINIONS ABOUT GLACIERES. 27 1 

In 1739, Matthias Bel published his curious account 
of Szilize.^^ 

J. N. Nagel, a Vienna mathematician, visited the 
Otscher in 1747. He concluded that the ice was made 
in winter and preserved in summer as in an ice house. 

M. de Cossigny wrote, in 1750, about Chaux-les-Passa- 
vant. He made a plan of the cave and took many obser- 
vations in April, August and October, and concluded 
that the interior condition of the cave does not change 
noticeably from winter to summer, no matter what the 
external conditions of temperature may be; that what 
people say of greater cold in summer, vanishes before 
actual experience and that, as a state of freezing reigns 
more or less continuously in the cave, it is not surprising 
if the ice accumulates. Apparently he was the first to 
notice and insist on the necessity of drainage to the cave 
through cracks in the rocks. He also made a series of 
observations disproving those of M. de Billerez, as to the 
presence of any kinds of salts in the rocks or ice. 

Hacquet, in 1778, thought that the ice in the cave at 
Lazhnagora formed in winter, but he also thought that 
there must undoubtedly be some salt in the water. He 
says he found ice in the cave in the spring, and that his 
companion, a priest, had never found any in winter. He 
therefore concluded that by that time it had all melted. 



73 



See Part III. : page 254. 



272 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

Remain Joly, in 1779, claims to have visited Chaux-les- 
Passavant on the 19th of September (year not given). His 
account seems largely borrowed from the one in the 
Histoire de r Academie Royale des Scie^ices, in 1686. He 
says: ''This ice is formed by the drops of water which 
fall from the roof, and w^hich freeze because of the chill 
of the cave. In the winter there is no ice, but running 
water." He says nothing, however, about the ice form- 
ing in summer. 

The Citoyen Girod-Chantrans visited Chaux-les-Pas sa- 
vant in August, 1783, and reached the conclusion, from all 
he saw and heard, that the cave did not freeze in summer 
nor thaw in winter, and that it was really a natural ice 
house. He was aided by the notes of a neighboring 
physician, Dr. Oudot, who had made observations in the 
cave, and among others, had placed stakes of wood, on 
the 8th of January, 1779, in the heads of the columns he 
had found in the cave; and on the 2 2d of February, 1780, 
had found these stakes completely covered with ice, form- 
ing columns 30 centimeters in diameter. 

Hablizl, in 1788, wrote that the ice in the cave near 
Karassoubazar formed in the spring by the snows which 
melt, run into the cave, and refreeze. He also thought 
that there was less ice there in the fall than in the spring, 
that it diminishes in July and August, and that the idea, 
current in the neighborhood, of the formation of ice in 
summer, is a mistake. 



SOME OPINIONS ABOUT GLACIERES. 273 

Professor Pierre Prevost, in 1789, gave an accurate 
explanation of the formation of the ice in Chaux-les-Passa- 
vant. He says: ''Weighing carefully the local circum- 
stances, one discovers in truth a few causes of permanent 
cold. But these causes seem rather suited to keep up a 
great freshness or to diminish the heat of summer, than to 
produce a cold such as that which reigns in the cavern. 
First of all, big trees throw shade over the entrance ; it is, 
I was told, forbidden under severe penalties to cut down 
any of them, for fear of depriving the grotto of a necessary 
shelter. In the second place, this entrance is situated 
almost due north, leaning a little to the east, which is the 
coolest exposure one can choose, and the one most suited 
to help the effect of the icy winds which blow from that 
quarter. Finally the slope is steep and the grotto deep 
and covered with a thick vault. These three conditions 
united constitute, as it seems to me, a very good ice house; 
by which I mean a reservoir fit to preserve during the 
summer, the ice which may bank up in winter. 

''But how does this ice bank up? One knows that 
the outside waters above form on the roof, during the win- 
ter, long drops and stalactites of ice. These icicles, which 
hang down and increase constantly by the drip from the 
same source which formed them, fall at last, carried away 
by their own weight, and form so many centres, around 
which freeze the waters with which the floor of the grotto 
is always inundated. At the same time, the blowing of 
the north wind accumulates snow at the base of the slope, 
which is uncovered in part and exposed above to all the 



2 74 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

vicissitudes of the weather. Thus during the winter is 
formed an irregular heap of ice and snow, which the first 
heats of spring begin to make run, but which the heats of 
summer cannot finish dissolving. The winter following 
has therefore even more facilit}^ to augment the mass of 
these ice pyramids, which have resisted until the fall. And 
if men did not work at diminishing it, it might happen that 
it would fill the entire cavern at last to a great height. 

*' I am therefore strongly inclined to think that the 
process of nature is here precisely similar to that of art ; 
that without any especial cause of cold, the natural gla- 
ciere of Besangon conserves in the moderate temperature 
of deep caverns, the heaps of snow and ice which the 
winds and the outside waters accumulate there during 
the winter; and that the melting of these snows and of 
these accumulated ices forms little by little the ice floor, 
scattered over w^ith blocks and pyramids, which one ob- 
serves there during the summer." 

Horace Benedict de Saussure, the great Swiss scien- 
tist and mountaineer, in 1796, published a number of ob- 
servations about cold current caves in various parts of the 
Alps. He found that in summer the air blows outward 
at the low^er end, and that in winter it draws inward. His 
explanation is that in summer the colder air in the tube is 
heavier than the outside air and displaces it by gravit}^ ; 
while in winter the rupture takes place in the other direc- 
tion, since the column within the tube is warmer than the 
outside air and therefore is pushed upwards by the heavy 



SOME OPINIONS ABOUT GLACIERES. 275 

air flowing in. He concludes that evaporation due to the 
air passing internally over moist rocks suffices to explain 
the phenomenon of low temperatures and that such caves 
have a rather lower temperature in the Alps than in Italy 
owing to the greater natural cold of the Swiss lake region. 
An experiment of his is worth mentioning. He passed a 
current of air through a glass tube, 2.5 centimeters in 
diameter, filled with moistened stones, and found that the 
air current which entered with a temperature of 22.5° 
came out with a temperature of 18.75°, ^^^^ is with a loss 
of 3.75° of heat. 

Robert Townson, LL. D., in 1797, published an ac- 
count, perhaps the first in English, of a glaciere cave. 
He says of Szilize: *'Ice I truly found here in abundance, 
and it was midsummer, but in a state of thaw ; the bed of 
ice, which covered the floor of the cavern was thinly cov- 
ered with water and everything announced a thaw. I had 
no need to use my thermometer : however I placed it in 
the ice and it fell to 0° of Reaumur : I then wiped it and 
placed it in a niche in the rock, at the furthest part of the 
cavern, a yard above the ice and here it remained near an 
hour : when I returned I found it at 0°. * * * Every- 
thing therefore, ice, water and atmosphere in the neigh- 
borhood had the same temperature, and that was the tem- 
perature of melting ice : 0° Reaumur. 

''When then is the ice which is found here, and in 
such quantities that this cavern serves the few opulent 
nobility in the neighborhood as an ice house, formed? 



276 GLAClfeRES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

Surely in winter, though not by the first frost, not so soon 
as ice is formed in the open air. No doubt, from the 
little communication this cavern has with the atmosphere, 
it will be but little and slowly affected by the change. 
Should therefore, Mr. Bel, or any of his friends, have 
come here to verify the common report at the commence- 
ment of a severe frost, when the whole country was cov- 
ered with ice and snow, they might still have found 
nothing here but water, or the ice of the preceding winter 
in a state of thaw, and the cavern relatively warm ; and 
likewise, should they have visited it in a warm spring, 
which had succeeded to a severe winter, they might have 
found nothing here but frost and ice ; and even the fresh 
melted snow, percolating through the roof of this cavern, 
might again have been congealed to ice. I observed fre- 
quently in Germany in the severe winter of 1794-5, on a 
sudden thaw, that the walls of churches and other public 
buildings, on the outside were w^hite and covered with a 
hoar frost, and the windows on the same side covered 
with a rime." 

Dr. Franz Sartori, in 1809, was a strong believer in the 
summer ice theory, and wrote of the flies and the gnats, 
the bats and the owls, and the foxes and the hares coming 
to Szilize to winter. 

Alexander von Humboldt, in 18 14, says about the Cu- 
eva del Hielo on the Peak of Teneriffe that so much snow 
and ice are stored up in winter that the summer heat 



SOME OPINIONS ABOUT GLACIERES. 277 

cannot melt it all, and also adds that permanent snow in 
caves must depend more on the amount of winter snow, 
and the freedom from hot winds, than on the absolute 
altitude of the cave. 

Dewey, in 1819, thought that the ice in the Snow Glen 
at Williamstown was a winter formation. 

Professor M. A. Pictet visited Saint-Georges, Le Brezon 
and Montarquis and in 1822 endeavored to prove that 
they are cold current caves and that the ice in them is due 
entirely to draughts causing evaporation. He believed in 
the theory of the ice forming in summer more than in win- 
ter and that it could not be the residue of a winter deposit. 
He therefore argued that it must be due to descending 
currents of air which he thought would be most energetic 
in summer ; that they would become at least as low as the 
mean annual temperature of the place and be still further 
cooled by evaporation. The strange thing about his theo- 
ries is that he does not seem to have personally observed 
any draughts either at Saint-Georges or Le Brezon, but 
the fact that the ice was evidently not an accumulation of 
winter snow led him to try to reconcile what he had him- 
self seen with de Saussure's theories about windholes. 

Jean Andre Deluc in 1822 published a paper discuss- 
ing the theories of MM. de Cossigny, Prevost and Pictet. 
Deluc had never visited a glaciere himself, but he explains 
clearly the impossibility of Professor Pictet' s cold current 



278 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

theor}^ on the simple ground that Professor Pictet himself 
did not find any cold currents. He takes up Professor 
Prevost's theories warmly ; using also the manuscript 
notes of Mons. Colladon who had visited the Grand Cave 
de Montarquis. Deluc says: ''that the winter's cold pen- 
etrates into these caves, freezes the water which collects 
there and that the ice thus formed has not the time to 
melt during the following summer." He says further : 
" It seems that in the three glacieres with which we have 
been occupied there is a flat or rather hollow bottom, 
where the waters can form a more or less deep pond, and 
whence they therefore cannot flow away ; it is there they 
flow in winter ; and as these are shut in places where the 
air cannot circulate, the heats of summer can only penetrate 
very feebly. The ice once formed in such cavities, only 
melts slowly ; for one knows that ice in melting, absorbs 
60° of heat ; and where find this heat in an air always very 
cold and nearly still ? During a great cold, the ice forms 
with great promptness, while it melts with much slowness, 
even when the temperature of the air is several degrees 
above zero ; what must then not be this slowness when 
the temperature of the interior air only rises in summer 
one degree above freezing point. It would need several 
summers to melt this ice if it did not reform each winter." 

C. A. Lee, in 1825, wrote that the ice in the Wolfs- 
hollow near Salisbury was a winter formation. 

G. Poulett Scrope, in 1826, accepted as the truth the 
statement that the cave of Roth was filled with ice in 



SOME OPINIONS ABOUT GLACIERES. 279 

summer, but that it was warm during the winter. In 1827, 
he explained the presence of ice at Pontgibaud as follows : 
" The water is apparently frozen by means of the power- 
ful evaporation produced by a current of very dry air is- 
suing from some long fissures or arched galleries which 
communicate with the cave, and owing its dryness to the 
absorbent qualities of the lava through which it passes." 

F. Reich, in 1834, thought that there were two possible 
causes which might produce subterranean ice: i, the dif- 
ference in specific gravity between warm and cold air ; 2, 
evaporation. He thought the cold air a sufficient cause in 
most caves, but he considered that evaporation also played 
a part not infrequently. 

Professor Silliman, in 1839, gave the first hint, in the 
negative, about compressed air as a cause for subterranean 
ice. He said about Owego that if one could suppose that 
compressed gases or a compressed atmosphere were es- 
caping from the water or near it, this would indicate a 
source of cold, but that as there is no indication of this 
in the water, the explanation is unavailable. 

Professor A. Pleischl wrote in 1841 that he was told 
that ice formed on the Pleschiwetz and on the Steinberge 
in summer. Continuing, he says: ''The author is there- 
fore, as well as for other reasons, of the opinion, that 
the ice is not remaining winter ice, but a summer 
formation, and one formed by the cold of evaporation. 
* * * The basalt is, as a thick stone, a good conductor 



28o GLACI^RES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

for the heat, and takes up therefore easily the sun's 
warmth, but parts with it easily to other neighboring 
bodies. In the hollows, between the basalt blocks, is 
found, as I already mentioned, rotting moss, which forms 
a spongy mass, which is wet through with water. The 
basalt heated by the sun's rays now causes a part of 
the water in the spongy mass to vaporize ; for this 
evaporation the water needs heat, which it withdraws 
from the neighboring bodies and in part from water, 
and makes the water so cold, that it freezes into ice, as, 
under the bell of an air pump — Nature therefore makes 
here a physical experiment on the largest scale." 

Much stress appears to have been laid on the paper 
of Professor Pleischl by Professor Krauss and one or two 
others. The weak point in it is that Pleischl did not see 
the ice form in summer, but was only, as usual, told that 
it did so. There is nothing in the facts given to show 
that the places mentioned are different from any other 
taluses, where ice does not form as the result of heat. 

Mr. C. B. Hayden, in 1843, wrote about the Ice Moun- 
tain in Virginia, and held that the porous nature of the 
rocks makes them poor conductors of heat, and that the 
mountain is a huge sandstone refrigerator. 

Dr. S. Pearl Lathrop, in 1844, wrote of the Ice Bed 
at Wallingford, Vermont, as a great natural refrigerator. 

Sir Roderick Impey Murchison wrote in 1845 about 
the salt mine and freezing cave of Illetzkaya-Zatschita. 



SOME OPINIONS ABOUT GLACIERES. 28 1 

He visited them during a hot August, and was assured 
that the cold within is greatest when the external air 
is hottest and driest ; that the fall of rain and a moist 
atmosphere produce some diminution in the cold of the 
cave and that on the setting in of winter the ice disap- 
pears entirely. He accepted these statements evidently 
only in a half hearted way, submitting them to Sir John 
Herschel, who tried to explain them, in case they were 
true, of which Herschel was likewise doubtful. Murchi- 
son at first thought that the ice was due to the under- 
lying bed of salt, but soon recognized that this explana- 
tion could not be correct. He also rejected Herschel's 
''heat and cold w^ave" theory. Shortly after this he came 
across Pictet's memoir, and on the strength of it concluded 
that the ice in Illetzkaya-Zatschita could not be the residue 
of a winter deposit, but must be due to descending cur- 
rents of air ; to the previously wet and damp roof afford- 
ing a passage to water; and to the excessive dr)^ness of 
the external air of these southern steppes contributing 
powerfully to the refrigerating effects of evaporation. 

Professor Arnold Guyot, in 1856, said that the well at 
Owego admitted large quantities of snow which melts, but 
not readily, because it is not accessible to the sun. It 
therefore goes through the same process as glaciers, of 
partly melting and refreezing ; and we have the formation 
of a glacier without movement. 

Professor W. B. Rogers, in 1856, held that the well at 
Owego became the recipient of the coldest air of the 



282 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

neighborhood, and the temperature remained abnormal 
because the bad conducting power of the materials of 
the well retained the cold. 

Professor D. Olmstead, in 1856, held about Owego 
that cold air exists in the interior of the earth which may 
have found a ventilating shaft in the well. 

Professor Petruzzi, in 1857, considered the following 
requirements necessary for a glaciere : A high altitude 
above the sea ; a decided drop into the interior of the 
mountain; absence of all draught; protection against all 
warm and moist winds, therefore the opening to north 
and east. He also says about the glaciere on the Pograca: 
that it is in shadow ; that the thick forest round the mouth 
keeps the temperature down ; that it begins to freeze 
below when it does above ; that the cold remains there 
into the spring ; and that the water from rain or other 
sources, which flows into the cave, must freeze there, and 
the ice form in greater quantities than the heat of summer 
can melt away. 

Mr. Albert D. Hager wrote in 1859: ''The question 
now arises, why it was that such a congealed mass of 
earth was found in Brandon at the time the frozen well 
was dug. My opinion is, that the bad conducting prop- 
erty of the solids surrounding it, the absence of ascending 
currents of heated air, and of subterranean streams of 
water in this particular locality favored such a result ; and 



SOME OPINIONS ABOUT GLACIERES. 283 

that the bad conducting property of clay, as well as that 
of the porous gravel associated with it, taken in connec- 
tion with the highly inclined porous strata, and the dis- 
position of heated air to rise, and the cold air to remain 
below, contribute to produce in the earth, at this place, a 
Tnaryimoth refrigerator^ embracing essentially the same 
principle as that involved in the justly celebrated refriger- 
ator known as ' Winship's Patent.' 

" Clay is not only nearly impervious to air and water, 
but it is one of the worst conductors of heat in nature. 
(Note. — To test the question whether clay was a poor 
conductor of heat or not, I took two basins of equal size, 
and in one put a coating of clay one-half inch thick, into 
which I put water of a temperature of 52° Fahrenheit. 
Into the other dish, which was clean, I put water of the 
same temperature, and subjected the two basins to equal 
amounts of heat; and in five minutes the water in the 
clean dish indicated a temperature of 70° while that of the 
one coated with clay was raised only to 56°.) If we can 
rely upon the statements of those who dug out the frozen 
earth, it rested upon a stratum of clay that lay upon the 
bed of pebbles in which the water was found, for it was 
described as being a very sticky kind of hard pan. 

"This being the case, if the water contained in the 
pebbly mass had a temperature above the freezing point, 
the heat would be but imperfectly transmitted to the frost, 
through the clay, provided there was no other way for its 
escape. But we have seen that the stratum of clay that 
overlays the bed of pebbles in the side of the gravel pit 



284 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

was not horizontal, but inclined towards the well at an 
angle of 25°. Now if this drip was continued to the well, 
and existed there (which is highly probable), it will be 
seen that the ascending current of heated air, in the 
pebbly bed, would be checked upon meeting the over- 
lying barrier of clay and be deflected out of its upward 
course. The tendency of heated air is to rise, hence it 
would continue its course along the under side of the 
clay, through the interstices in the bed of pebbles, till it 
found a place of escape at the surface, which in this case 
may have been at the gravel pit before named." 

Professor Edward Hitchcock wrote in 1861 : *' The 
presence of a mass of frozen gravel deep beneath the sur- 
face in Brandon, was first made known by digging a well 
in it in the autumn of 1858. * * * The gravel, also, 
rises into occasional knolls and ridges. In short, it is just 
such a region of sand and gravel as may be seen in many 
places along the western side of the Green Mountains ; 
and indeed, all over New England. It is what we call 
modified drift, and lies above genuine drift, having been 
the result of aqueous agency subsequent to the drift 
period. * * * T^\iq well was stoned up late in the 
autumn of 1858, and during the winter, ice formed upon 
the water in one night, two inches thick. It continued to 
freeze till April ; after which no ice was formed on the 
surface, but we can testify that as late as June 25th, the 
stones of the well for four or five feet above the surface 
of the water were mostly coated with ice ; nay, it had not 



SOME OPINIONS ABOUT GLACIERES. 285 

wholly disappeared July 14th. The temperature of the 
water was only one degree of Fahrenheit above freezing 
point. The ice did however disappear in the autumn but 
was formed again (how early we did not learn) in the 
winter, and so thick too that it was necessary to send 
some one into the well to break it. We visited the well 
August 1 8th, i860, and found the temperature 42°. Yet 
only the week previous ice was seen upon the stones, and 
we were even told by one of the family, that a piece of ice 
had been drawn up the day before in the bucket. * * * 
These frozen deposits may have been produced during the 
glacial period that accompanied the formation of drift, and 
continued far down into the subsequent epochs of modified 
drift. * * ♦ gy|- jj^ ^\\ ^i^Q excavations both gravel 
and clay occur : and how almost impervious to heat must 
such a coating 20 feet thick, be ! It would not, however, 
completely protect the subjacent mass from solar heat. 
But there is another agency still more powerful for this 
end, namely, evaporation, which we think has operated 
here, as we shall more fully describe further on ; and we 
think that these two agencies, namely, non-conduction and 
evaporation, may have preserved this frozen deposit for 
a very long period, from exterior influences." 

Professor Thury in 1861 says about Saint-Georges: 
**Such is the resume, concise but exact, of the results of 
our winter excursion. They furnish proof to the fact gen- 
erally borne witness to by the mountaineers, that ice does 
not form in winter in the interior of caverns. But if this 



286 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

is SO, it is for a very simple reason : two things are neces- 
sary for the formation of ice : cold and water. In winter, 
the cold is not wanting : but if there is no spring opening 
in the cave, the water is absent, and then no ice forms. 

**It is in the spring, at the time of the first melting of 
the snows, that the ice must form. Then water at o° 
pours over the surface, and penetrates by the fissures 
of the rock and by the large openings into the chilled 
cavern, which is also receiving the freezing air of the 
nights. The grotto then makes its annual provision of 
ice, which after this could only diminish little by little 
during the whole duration of the warm season." 

Professor Thury writes about the Grand Cave de Mon- 
tarquis : "Here it must be when water and cold meet, 
that is autumn and especially spring, the time of the first 
melting of the snows." 

'' During the winter * * * the colder, heavier air 
comes to freeze the water of the grotto, and chill the ice 
and the wall of rock." 

*' During the summer, the radiation of the vaults and 
the proper heat of the ground only melt a small quantity 
of ice because this absorbs much heat to pass into a liquid 
state." 

''The heat of the air is entirely used to melt the ice ; it 
does not therefore manifest itself as sensible heat." 

'' The contact of the ice ready to melt, plays in a certain 
way, towards the air a little warmer than itself, the role of 
an extremely absorbing body, or one which has an ex- 
cessive caloric conductibility." 



SOME OPINIONS ABOUT GLACIERES. - 287 

'' Here the formation of the ice could not possibly be 
attributed to the cold caused by evaporation. The psy- 
chrometer indicated ninety-two per cent, of relative hu- 
midity : the atmosphere of the grotto was therefore almost 
saturated with evaporation of water, and the maximum of 
cold caused by evaporation was not over half a degree 
centigrade." 

About prismatic ice and a hollow pyramid, he says : 
"The prismatic (areolaire) structure is produced later on 
in the ice, by a new and particular arrangement of the 
molecules of the already solidified water. Therefore the 
recent stalactites are never crystallized." 

" In the beginning of the hot season, the atmospheric 
temperature of the grotto rises slowly. Inferior to zero 
by some tenths of a degree, it produces first on the surface, 
in the stalactites, the prismatic structure. The temperature 
continues to rise, the central portions of the stalactites, 
still composed of ordinary ice, liquefy, and if the melting 
water finds some issue, either by accidental openings left 
between some prisms, or by the extremity of the stalactite 
or by some point of its surface which had escaped the 
action of the regular crystallization ; by this opening the 
water escapes, and the tubular stalactite has been formed." 

** The column was composed of a very special ice, per- 
fectly dry, perfectly homogeneous, translucid and whose 
appearance could only be compared to that of the most 
beautiful porcelain. I am inclined to believe that we had 
under our eyes a special molecular state of congealed 
water. This state would be produced under the influence 



2 88 GLACIl^RES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

of a constant temperature of a certain degree (Note — per- 
haps not far from 4° — the actual temperature of the grotto) 
long prolonged. These causes can he realized more com- 
pletely in glacieres than anywheres else." 

The Reverend George Forrest Browne, published in 
1865, Ice Caves in France and Switzerland, one of the most 
delightful books of travel ever written, on account of the 
scientific accuracy and the humor of the author. Revisited 
La Genolliere, Saint-Georges, Saint-Livres, Chaux-les-Pas- 
savant, Monthezy, Arc-sous-^icon, the Schafloch, Haut- 
d'Aviernoz, which he calls Grand Anu, Chapuis, and Font- 
d'Urle. He says: "The view which Deluc adopted was 
one which I have myself independently formed. * * * 
The heavy cold air of winter sinks down into the glacieres, 
and the lighter warm air of summer cannot on ordinary 
principles of gravitation dislodge it, so that heat is very 
slowly spread in the caves ; and even when some amount 
of heat does reach the ice, the latter melts but slowly, for 
ice absorbs 60° C. of heat in melting ; and thus, when ice is 
once formed, it becomes a material guarantee for the per- 
manence of cold in the cave. For this explanation to hold 
good it is necessary that the level at which the ice is formed 
should be below the level of the entrance to the cave; 
otherwise the mere weight of the cold air would cause it 
to leave its prison as soon as the spring warmth arrived. 
In every single case that has come under my observation, 
this condition has been emphatically fulfilled. It is neces- 
sary, also, that the cave should be protected from direct 



SOME OPINIONS ABOUT GLACIERES. 289 

radiation, as the gravitation of cold air has nothing to do 
with resistance to that powerful means of introducing heat. 
This condition, also, is fulfilled by nature in all the gla- 
cieres I have visited, excepting that of S. Georges ; and 
there art has replaced the protection formerly afforded by 
the thick trees which grew over the hole of entrance. The 
effect of the second hole in the roof of this glaciere is to . 
destroy all the ice which is within range of the sun. A 
third and very necessary condition is, that the wind should 
not be allowed access to the cave ; for if it were, it would 
infallibly bring in heated air, in spite of the specific weight 
of the cold air stored within. It will be understood from 
my description of such glacieres as that of the Grand Anu, 
of Monthezy, and the lower glaciere of the Pre de S. Livres, 
how completely sheltered from all winds the entrances to 
those caves are. There can be no doubt, too, that the 
large surfaces which are available for evaporation have 
much to do with maintaining a somewhat lower temper- 
ature than the mean temperature of the place where the 
cave occurs." 

Browne noticed prismatic ice several times. He says 
of it : " M. Thury suggests also, as a possibility, what I 
have found to be the case by frequent observations, that 
the prismatic ice has greater power of resisting heat than 
ordinary ice. * * * A Frenchman who was present in 
the room in which the Chemical Section of the British 
Association met at Bath, and heard a paper which I read 
there on this prismatic structure, suggested that it was 
probably something akin to the rhomboidal form assumed 



290 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

by dried mud ; and I have since been struck by the great 
resemblance to it, as far as the surface goes, which the pits 
of mud left by the coprolite workers near Cambridge offer, 
of course on a very large scale. This led me to suppose 
that the intense dryness which would naturally be the re- 
sult of the action of some weeks or months of great cold 
upon subterranean ice might be one of the causes of its 
assuming this form, and the observations at Jena would 
rather confirm than contradict this view : competent au- 
thorities, however, seem inclined to believe that warmth, 
and not cold, is the producing cause." 

Mr. Browne found a hollow cone at La Genolliere, for 
which he accounted as follows : ''In the loftier part of 
the cave * * * ninety six drops of water in a minute 
splashed on to a small stone immediately under the main 
fissure. This stone was in the centre of a considerable 
area of the floor which was clear of ice. * * ♦ j found 
that the edge of the ice round this clear area was much 
thicker than the rest of the ice on the floor, and was 
evidently the remains of the swelling pedestal of the 
column. « * * When the melted snows of spring 
send down to the cave, through the fissures of the rock, 
an abundance of water at a very low temperature and the 
cave itself is stored with the winter's cold, these thicker 
rings of ice catch first the descending water, and so a 
circular wall, naturally conical, is formed around the area 
of stones ; the remaining water either running off through 
the interstices, or forming a floor of ice of less thickness, 
which yields to the next summer's drops. In the course 



SOME OPINIONS ABOUT GLACIERES. 29 1 

of time, this conical wall rises, narrowing always, till a 
dome-like roof is at length formed and thenceforth the 
column is solid." From what I have observed myself, this 
explanation seems to fairly meet the facts. 

Professor T. G. Bonney, in 1868, was inclined to believe 
that there was some connection between glacieres and a 
glacial period. 

Mr. W. R. Raymond, in 1869, concluded from his own 
observations about the lava cave in Washington : that the 
cold air of winter freezes up the percolating waters from 
the surface, layer upon layer, solid from the bottom, 
and the accumulated ice thaws slowly in summer, being 
retarded by the covering which keeps out the direct 
rays of the sun, and by the fact that the melting ice at 
one end of the cave, through which the summer draught 
enters, itself refrigerates the air and maintains a freezing 
temperature at the other end. 

Dr. C. A. White, in 1870, says of the cavern at Deco- 
rah: ''The formation of the ice is probably due to the 
rapid evaporation of the moisture of the earth and rocks, 
caused by the heat of the summer sun upon the outer wall 
of the fissure and valley side. This outer wall is from ten 
to twenty feet in thickness where the ice was seen to be 
most abundant. The water for its production seems to 
be supplied by slow exudation from the inner wall of the 



cave." 



292 GLACI^RES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

Dr. Krenner, in 1874, wrote of Dobsina as '' a natural 
ice cellar of giant dimensions, whose ice masses formed in 
winter, the summer does not succeed in melting." 

Professor W. Boyd Dawkins wrote in 1874: ''The 
apparent anomaly that one only out of a group of caves 
exposed to the same temperature should be a glaciere^ 
may be explained by the fact that these conditions [those 
formulated by the Rev. G. F. Browne] are found in com- 
bination but rarely, and if one were absent there would be 
no accumulation of perpetual ice. It is very probable that 
the store of cold laid up in these caves, as in an ice house, 
has been ultimately derived from the great refrigeration of 
climate in Europe in the Glacial Period." 

Mr. Theodore Kirchhoff examined the lava caves in the 
State of Washington and in 1876 wrote that he considered 
that the ice in the smaller ones were simply remains of the 
winter's cold. He thought that the ice in the large cave 
where there is a draught could not be accounted for in the 
same way, so he concluded that the ice must be due to the 
draught. 

Mr. N. M. Lowe, in 1879, proposed the Compressed 
Air or Capillary theory^^ about the Cave at Decorah. 

Mr. John Ritchie, Jr., in 1879, gave an exceedingly clear 
exposition of the theory in the same journal. 

^*See Part II., page 142. 



SOME OPINIONS ABOUT GLACIERES. 293 

Mr. Aden S. Benedict, in 1881, published his observa- 
tions about Decorah. He found that there was no water 
falling in the cave to compress the air, that there was no 
water falling near enough to be heard, nor any aperture 
giving vent to cold air in the cave. He thought that the 
cold of winter cools the sides of the cave several degrees 
below freezing point and that these rocks are so far 
underground that it would take a long season of hot 
weather to raise this temperature to the melting point of 
ice. In the spring the water percolates through the soil 
and drips on to the yet freezing rocks ; on which it freezes 
and remains until the heat of summer penetrates to a suffi- 
cient depth to melt it away. The rocks once raised above 0° 
remain so until the following winter and consequently if 
there are heavy autumn rains there is water on the rocks 
but no ice. Mr. Benedict concluded that there was noth- 
ing more mysterious about Decorah than the fact that if 
you drop water on a cold stone it will freeze. 

Professor Friederich Umlauft in 1883 wrote about 
glacieres '' that as moreover they were generally protected 
against warm winds and strong draughts and as their en- 
trances look towards the north or east, there is conse- 
quently more ice formed under these conditions in winter 
than can melt away in summer. Other ice grottoes how- 
ever show the remarkable characteristic, that it is warm in 
them in winter, in the summer on the contrary it becomes 
so cold that all the dripping water freezes. They are 
found near snow clefts and gorges ; when in the hot sum- 



294 GLACIl^RES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

mer months the snow melts, then the cold which has be- 
come free presses down the temperature in the cave so 
much that the water freezes into ice. Such grottoes are 
in Austria at * * * Frauenmauer, * * * Brand- 
stein, * * * Teplitz, * * * Scilize, * * * Dob- 
schauer." 

Herr Korber in 1885 wrote about the Schafloch, that the 
stored-up winter's cold stands out as permanent adversary 
of the higher temperature of the earth. The thermometer 
proved this by its action at the end of the cave in a rock 
cleft, which is warmer than the rest of the cave. In Sep- 
tember Herr Korber found the masses of ice less and the 
stalagmites smaller than in January, especially a column 
which in January had become a stately mountain of trans- 
parent ice. 

Professor Eberhard Fugger of Salzburg, has studied 
the caves of the Untersberg carefully, having paid over 
eighty visits to them. He classifies freezing caverns into 
the following types, according to their position and their 
shape : 

According to position: i, open caves, that is those 

whose entrance is free on a rock wall ; 2, pit caves, where 
the entrance is at the bottom of a pit ; 3, pit caves, where 
the pit is covered and the opening is in the roof. 

According to shape : i , sackhohlen or chamber caverns, 
into which one enters immediately at the entrance ; 2, 
ganghohlen, or passage caves terminating in a chamber ; 3, 



SOME OPINIONS ABOUT GLACIERES. 295 

rbhrenhbhlen^ or passage caves where the passages continue 
further than the chamber. 

He is a strong advocate of the winter's cold theory. 
He says : '* The ice of caves is formed by the cold of 
winter, and remains despite the heat of summer, as through 
local circumstances the quantity of heat brought to the ice 
is not great enough to melt it by the time when ice and 
snow in the open at the same altitude have already dis- 
appeared." 

**In order that ice may form in a cave in winter, two 
factors are necessary. There must be water present in 
some form or other, and in some way the outside cold air 
must be able to sink into the cave." 

" When the bottom of a cave is below the entrance, the 
outside cold winter air sinks into the cave from its weight, 
when the temperature of the cave air is higher than that of 
the outside air; and it will remain there during the warmer 
weather, as the warm outside air on account of its lighter 
weight cannot drive out the cold heavy cave air." 

" The most important factor for the formation of ice is 
the drip water. The more drip flows into a cave during 
the cold season, the more ice is formed ; the more drip, on 
the contrary, flows into the cave during the warm season, 
the more ice is destroyed." 

" The warmth, which the roof of the cave gives out, is 
also a cause which helps to melt the ice, and a cause in 
fact which works the harder, the higher the temperature of 
the roof and the dirtier the ice floor." 

** If direct rays of the sun penetrate a cave, they scarcely 



296 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

warm up the air which they traverse, but they raise the 

temperature of the floor or of the walls, which they touch. 

They are therefore a very important factor, which may 

bring about the melting of the ice." 

"The snow slope at the mouth of a cave offers some 

protection against the rays of the sun, especially if it is no 

longer white, but covered with all sorts of dirt." 

'* The larger the mass of ice, the longer is its duration." 

" A certain thickness to the roof is of importance in 
preserving the ice. If it is less than 8 meters, then it is 
well if it is covered with outside vegetation." 

I entirely agree with these dicta of Professor Fugger. 

In 1893, Fugger writes: *'The peculiar readings of 
temperature, which I made in August 1877, in the Kolo- 
wratshohle, namely on the 13th at 12 M., 0.5°, on the 
15th at 4 P. M., 0.35°, on the 23d at 10 A. M., 0.12°, on the 
26th at 10 A. M., 0.17°, and on the 30th at 2.15 P. M., 
— 0.10°, I think I can attribute to the workings of the winds. 
In the observations themselves there could scarce be an 
error. All five observations were made at the same place, 
with the same thermometer, after at least half an hour's 
exposure. In the time from the 13th to the 30th of 
August, the temperature minimum in the town of Salz- 
burg, was 12°; before the 30th were several cloudless 
nights. During the whole of August scarcely any but 
southeast and northwest winds were blowing. The Kolo- 
wratshohle opens in a rock wall to the east ; the above 
named winds therefore affected during the entire month 
the entrance to the cave and may have produced a lively 



SOME OPINIONS ABOUT GLACIERES. 297 

evaporation in the cave, through a sort of sucking up of 
the cave air, and thus have created the rather decided 
cooling off of 0.6° within seventeen days." 

This statement, coming from Professor Fugger, de- 
serves particular attention, because it would go to show : 
first, that the air in the Kolowratshohle, a sackhohle with 
only one entrance, is only apparently stagnant in summer 
and not really so ; and second, that evaporation may act 
to a limited extent in a cavern where there is almost no 
running water. 

Captain Trouillet, in 1885, published a paper about 
Chaux-les-Passavant. He found that when it was colder 
inside than outside, the internal air was nearly cut off 
from the outside ; when it was coldest outside there was 
a lively disturbahce. He called these two classes periodes 
fermees and periodes ouvertes. He says: *'The duration 
of a closed period is measured then on the curves [of a 
maximum and minimum thermometer] of the interior 
temperatures, between a minimum and the following 
maximum ; that of an open period is between a minimum 
and the preceding maximum. One can thus count from 
the 25 th November to the 31st December 25 open periods of 
a total duration of 200 hours or 8 times 24 hours : which 
gives for each a duration of 7^ hours. The shortest 
lasted 2 hours and the longest 16 hours. During the 
same interval, the closed periods numbered 26, making a 
total duration of about 28 days ; the longest, which lasted 
from the 3d to the 8th December, was 126 hours long." 



298 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

Trouillet also says: ''From the 23d to the 30th De- 
cember, the grotto was completely isolated from the ex- 
ternal air, and yet during three consecutive nights, the 
interior had three marked chills. Such is the phenomenon 
whose cause can only lay, in our opinion, in the introduc- 
tion of the dry air driven to the cave by the winds between 
north and east. This air on entering comes in contact 
with the ice and the humid roof of the cave ; it saturates 
itself in producing a formation of vapors, and therefrom 
a consumption of heat which may be considerable.'* 

There are some discrepancies in this last paragraph 
which must be noted, for the reason that Trouillet' s ob- 
servations are so valuable. He does not mention having 
seen the vapors himself, in fact the production of these 
vapors seems only an inference. Nor is it easy to under- 
stand how the grotto could be "completely isolated from 
the external air " if the phenomenon lay "in the introduc- 
tion of the dry air driven to the cave by the winds north 
and east." 

Dr. B. Schwalbe, in 1886, wrote that "all my observa- 
tions point to the fact that the rock is the cooling factor in 
summer, and that the cold goes out from it." He says 
also that "when I saw for the first time the little cave of 
Roth, which was filled with fairly numerous ice formations, 
it was precisely the smallness of the volume of air and the 
strange appearance of the ice which made the simple cold 
air theory seen insufficient, nor could I later, by widening 
the theory and observing the localities from the basis of 



SOME OPINIONS ABOUT GLACIERES. 299 

DeLuc's theory, accept it. It always seemed by all my 

observations that in the rock there must be a lasting 
source of cold. There must be a cause present, which 
prevents the rapid warming of the cave wall through the 
temperature of the ground, which also keeps the stone 
cool in summer and induces the main ice formation in the 
spring." He also hints that Mr. Lowe's compressed air 
theory may be the correct one. Dr. Schwalbe's work, 
Uber Eishohlen und Eislocher, is one of the four or five 
most important contributions to glaciere literature, and 
his opinion is entitled to great respect on account of his 
many observations. 

Professor Israel C. Russell wrote in 1890, about the ice 
beds on the Yukon : '* It is thought by some observers, 
to be an inheritance from a former period of extreme cold ; 
but under existing climatic conditions, when ice forms 
beneath a layer of moss, it is preserved during the short 
summer, and may increase as it does on the tundras, to 
an astonishing thickness." 

In 1897, Professor Russell says: *'It is not probable 
that all the subsoil ice of northern regions has been 
formed in one way. Along the flood plains and on the 
deltas of rivers where layers of clear ice are interbedded 
with sheets of frozen gravel and vegetable matter, as is 
frequently the case, it seems evident that the growth of 
the deposit is due, in some instances, to the flooding of 
previously frozen layers, and the freezing and subsequent 
burial of the sediment thus added to their surfaces. 



300 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

When spring freshets spread out sheets of debris over 
the flood plain of a river, as frequently happens when 
streams in high latitudes flow northward, the previously 
frozen soil and the ice of ponds and swamps may be 
buried and indefinitely preserved." '' There is still 
another process by which frozen subsoil may be formed in 
high latitudes : this is, the effects of the cold during the 
long winters are not counteracted by the heat during the 
short summers. Under the conditions now prevailing in 
northern Alaska, where the mean annual temperature is 
below 32° Fahrenheit, the frozen layer tends to increase 
the thickness from year to year just as the depth of frozen 
soil in more temperate latitudes may increase from month 
to month during the winter season. During the short 
northern summers, especially where the ground is moss 
covered, melting only extends a few inches below the sur- 
face." 

Mons. E. A. Martel, in 1892, wrote of the Creux- 
Perce : ''I incline only, as in all the pits which narrow at 
the bottom {avens a retrecissement) to attribute the chilling 
to the fall of the cold air of winter and to its non-renewal 
in summer." And at page 564 oi Les Abimes he says: 
*' One knows that evaporation is an active cause of cool- 
ing ; therefore it is always cooler in caves near the drips 
of water. * * ♦ j have positively noted this influence 
of evaporation near the drips of Tabourel (8° instead of 
9.5°), of Dargilan, of the Cerna Jama, and in abysses with 
double mouths where there were strong draughts (Raba- 



SOME OPINIONS ABOUT GLACIERES. 3OI 

nel, Biau, Fosse-Mobile, etc.)." In December, 1897, 
Mons. Martel writes: **In short, the action of the winter's 
cold is the real cause accepted by * * * and recently 
confirmed by Fugger, Trouillet and Martel." And also : 
'* It is probable that this influence [evaporation] is only 
real at rather high altitudes ; this is at least what seems 
the result of the studies of the caves of Naye (1700 to 
1900 meters) begun by Professor Dutoit." 

In 1899, Mons. Martel gave an account of the Glaciere 
de Naye. In this paper, he abandons definitely fossil ice, 
salts and the capillary theory as possible causes of under- 
ground ice. He considers that there are four causes : 
I, shape of the cavity; 2, free access of snow in winter; 
3, high altitude ; 4, evaporation due to wind currents. 
The last two causes he thinks are not necessarily always 
present. For instance he considers that, at the Creux- 
Perce, and at Chaux-les-Passavant, the ice is due espe- 
cially to the sack or hour-glass shape of these hollows where 
the summer air cannot get in on account of its lightness. 
At the Glaciere de Naye, which is a big windhole, situated 
at an altitude of 1750 to 1820 meters, Mons. Martel thinks 
that the ice is formed by the snow and cold of winter, but 
that its preservation is assured by the evaporation caused 
by the action of the windhole. 

Dr. Terlanday, in 1893, asserted that ice does not form 
in Szilize in winter, and that the ice first forms in the win- 
ter in the upper part of rock fissures and that in the 
spring, at the time of an increase of temperature, this 



302 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

fissure ice is brought to the melting point by the succes- 
sive entering of heat into the earth and that it then arrives 
at the cave, where it aids the formation of icicles. This 
theor}- about fissure ice is probably in so far correct, that 
the ice in the upper parts of fissures, near the surface of 
the ground, melts before the ice in the lower parts of fis- 
sures. The drip would then naturally run into the cave 
and, as long as the temperature of the cave was low, help 
to form cave ice. 

Dr. Hans Lohmann, in 1S95, published some valuable 
notes about several glacieres. While considering the cold 
of winter as the main cause of the ice. he thought evapo- 
ration a secondan' cause of cold. He says: "That the 
cold from evaporation bears its share in cooling a cave, 
will not be denied. * * * The air saturated with 
aqueous vapor makes one think of constant evaporation. 
The aqueous vapor spreads itself by diffusion throughout 
the entire cave, and if the outside air is driest, goes to 
that. Through this, more ice and water can always be 
vaporized, and to the warming elements there is furnished 
a coolino; one. If dr\' winds s^et into the cave, then must 
evaporation be ver)- lively and the chilling especially 
strong. Through this cause alone can be explained the 
remarkably low temperature of — 6.3"^ in the new part of 
the Garischen StoUen. in contrast to the temperature of 
-r 7.9° in the old part. The strong draught in the last 
drew out through its suction the damp air of the new 
adit, so that there had to be a strong evaporation." 



SOME OPINIONS ABOUT GLACIERES. 303 

Dr. Lohmann gives some exhaustive notes about pris- 
matic ice. He found it a product of the fall months. He 
thinks all the observations show that "the beginning of all 
prismatic formation in the ice may be looked for in the 
changes of temperature in the cave at the time of the 
formation of the ice. These cause the everywhere recog- 
nized splitting, vertically to the outer surface. The further 
development hangs, as shown by Hagenbach and Emden, 
on the attempt of the neighboring cells, to join into larger 
unities. The increase of the larger crystals is finally pre- 
vented by the melting out of the openings between the 
separate crystals. Through this may be explained the 
difference in the prismatic ice in different parts of the 
same cave." 

Regierungsrath Franz Kraus, in 1895, wrote a short 
essay on glacieres in Hohlenkunde. He seems to have 
seen but few glacieres himself, and considers the scientific 
side of the question by no means solved as yet. He says : 
" The last word will not be spoken by the geographers and 
the Alpine climbers * * * \^^^ ]3y ^^ physicists, in 
whose field both questions really belong. Only then, when 
the physical circumstances of the formation of the ice in 
glacieres have been so thoroughly understood, that under 
the same circumstances it may be possible to build arti- 
ficial glacieres, only then could one say : the glaciere 
question is definitely settled. The best proof is always 
experiment." 

He lays down several dicta which he says are 



304 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

universally recognized, among which is this: "2. The ice 
formations in the debris heaps of basaltic mountains are 
summer ice formations. The evaporation of the infiltra- 
tion water is recognized on all sides as the cause of this 
ice." I differ in opinion from Herr Kraus about this 
matter, and think that, on the contrary, every proof shows 
that the ice of basaltic taluses is not a summer forma- 
tion and is not due to evaporation. 

Herr Kraus also says: "The Eishohlen resemble so 
little the Windrohren, that for these a proper name is quite 
correct. Just as one cannot draw a sharp line between 
Einstilrzschlunden and Einstilrzdolinen, so one cannot 
draw a sharp line between eishohlen and windrohren, A 
stagnation of cave air does not exist, and no cave stu- 
dent would pretend to say it existed. The circulation 
of air may in certain caves take place almost entirely 
through the mouth and it then depends largely on the 
shape of the latter ; in other caves are crevices and 
erosion holes, which allow a circulation of air. Again in 
other caves air may come through the floor into the 
cave, as is proved by certain places always remaining 
free from ice." 

He also says : "■ The formation of dripstone is also 
diminished about thick roofs, when the cracks are too 
broad to permit a slow dripping process. In caves with 
sufficient air movements, that is ventilation, the dripstone 
formation takes place faster than in those in which the air 
is only slowly renewed. Also in such caves, in which the 
air is strongly filled with moisture, the dripstone forma- 



SOME OPINIONS ABOUT GLACIERES. 305 

tion process is materially hindered. Therefore in water 
caves and in eishohlen one finds only rarely dripstone 
formations, and these mainly of poor appearance. But in 
all cases the carbonic acid of the infiltration water plays 
an important part." 

In 1896, a Western newspaper published the follow- 
ing explanation about the presence of ice in the cave 
at Elkinsville, Indiana ; and it shows how the idea — 
long since exploded — of the ice being due to chemical 
causes, serenely bobs up on the discovery of a new cave : 
"■ Some have advanced the theory that the air is forced 
through under passages of the earth with such pressure 
as to make the strange formation ; some have attributed 
the cause to an underlying bed of alkali, whose chemical 
change to a gaseous form has produced the phenomenon. 
Others have thought that the interior heat of the earth, 
acting upon the iron pyrites, or fool's gold, which largely 
abounds in this country, is the true source of this unpar- 
alleled discovery. Still others think that the sudden ex- 
pansion of the carbonic acid gas given off by the heated 
limestone, which is also common in this country, could 
have easily produced the ice. But thus far the theories 
are nothing more than speculation, and further than the 
fact that the ice cave exists, and is, indeed, a remarkable 
phenomenon, none has been able to further determine." 

In 1896, Dr. A. Cvijic wrote that the cold air of winter 
is the source of cold in the glacieres of Servia. The 



o 



06 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 



mountains have so little water that the shepherds con- 
stantly take the ice out in summer for their own use. 

In 1897, numerous newspapers, among others, the 
Philadelphia Press of August ist, romanced as follows 
about the cave at Decorah : "In the summer its tempera- 
ture is far below freezing. * * * From some unknown 
source in the impenetrable rear of the cave comes a 
blast of cold air as chill as from the Arctic region. In 
the winter the temperature of the cave is like summer. 
* * * \yg followed the winding passage in and out 
for more than 1000 feet. * * * I took out the ther- 
mometer and laid it upon the floor of the cavern for three 
minutes. When I took it up again I found that the 
mercur)^ had fallen to 5 degrees below zero." 

''What is it that causes this phenomenon ? Scientific 
men are said to have visited the cave within the last day or 
two who have declared that it had in some manner a sub- 
terranean connection with the polar regions, and that the 
cold air from the North coming in contact with the warm 
moist atmosphere from outside converted the vapor into 
water on the walls of the cavern where it straightway con- 
gealed. * * * j^ seems to me possible after thinking 
the matter over carefully, that in some mysterious manner 
the same influences that work the changes in climate in 
the Arctic and Antarctic regions are operating in this 
cave. It is a well-known fact that in the regions re- 
ferred to the seasons are the reverse of what they are 
here." 



SOME OPINIONS ABOUT GLACIERES. 307 

Mr. W. S. Auchincloss writes in 1897: '*We also 
notice the working of the same principle during summer 
days. The hottest part does not occur at the noon hour — 
when the sun is on the meridian — ^but several hours later 
in the afternoon. In this case the accessions of heat ar- 
rive more rapidly than radiation is able to carry off. Radia- 
tion, however, keeps on apace, and, at last attaining the 
mastery, temperature falls. Ice caves furnish another ex- 
ample of the gradual procession in the seasons." 

Mr. Alois F. Kovarik writes about Decorah in 1898 
that *'the length of duration of the ice in the cave during 
the spring and summer depends upon the quantity of 
cold stored up in the walls and this again upon the cold- 
ness and the length of coldness of the previous winter. 
If the winter be severe and long, the walls will store up a 
great supply of cold for the gradual dissipation in the 
spring and summer and consequently the phenomenon of 
the ice in the ice chambers will last longer. Last winter, 
with an exception of the fore part of December, was quite 
mild. As a result, the ice began to disappear with the 
latter part of June, and totally disappeared by the end of 
July. * * * The time of the lowest temperature in 
the cave depends upon how soon the cold spells of the 
winter begin ; for the sooner the walls begin to freeze to 
a greater depth, the sooner have they stored up the 
greatest amount of cold. * * * February 28th, 1898, 
when the walls contained the greatest amount of cold, 
there was no ice in the cave, for the reason that no water 



J 



08 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 



made appearance. Could water have appeared, no doubt 
a great amount of ice would have formed ; but as the con- 
ditions are, the water has to come from the eround out- 
side, and this being frozen at the time, water could not in 
any natural way appear. If in early spring, sufficiently 
warm days should come to melt the snow and open the 
ground, the water not taken up by the ground would flow 
and seep through crevices into the cave and ice conse- 
quently would appear early. Somewhat such conditions 
prevailed this year, for warm days appeared quite early in 
the spring. If per co7itra the ground does not open until 
in April, as was the case in 1895 ^^^ 1896, the appearance 
of the ice is consequently delayed. * * * Naturally 
this opening [the entrance] w^as small, but to give easier 
entrance, it was enlarged to its present size. * * * 
If the entrance had been left a small opening, as it 
naturally was, it is my belief that the temperature of the 
interior of the cave would be lower in summer than it is^ 
and the ice would not disappear as soon as it does." 

Mr. Robert Butler, of San Jose, Cal., investigated the 
question of cold air draughts coming from the glaciere 
cave and from the freezing shaft he examined in Montana. 
He wrote to me, in 1898, that he found that one notices 
or imagines to notice a draught of air, especially on hot 
days. Rapidly walking into the cave from the hot air with- 
out to the rapidly cooling air within produces the same 
nerv^ous sensations as though one were to remain station- 
ar}' and the air were to pass by from the warm to the 



SOME OPINIONS ABOUT GLACIERES. 3O9 

colder portions. A distance of twelve meters finds a 
difference in temperature of fifteen degrees Centigrade. 
Twelve meters can be walked quickly, so quickly that the 
nerves cannot become accustomed gradually to the change 
of temperature. The rapidly cooling air does actually pro- 
duce the sensation of cool air passing by one's face. It 
produces somewhat the same sensation as the evapora- 
tion of ether on the surface of the body. Mr. Butler 
satisfied himself that as far as he had observed all the 
seemingly peculiar conditions and places where the ice 
has been found do not indicate any other causes when 
carefully investigated than those of the seasons of the 
year, and that the ice was formed by no other cause 
than the natural cold of winter. 

Professor Cranmer, in 1899, added some important con- 
tributions to our knowledge of freezing caverns. All his 
work goes to prove the winter's cold theory, but he has 
brought out some new details. He found warm and cold 
periods in the Tablerloch during the winter months. The 
coldest air sank to the bottom and the air in the cave 
stratified itself according to its specific gravity and its 
temperature. During a cold period, the outside air sank 
into the cave only to the air stratum, whose temperature, 
from the preceding warm period, was as much higher as 
that of the outer air, as this had become warmer in sink- 
ing to that stratum. The air which enters falls down the 
slope and displaces an equal volume of air which streams 
out under the roof. 



3IO GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

Water will sometimes drip through a crack in winter 
until that crack freezes up, when the water may then find 
some other crack to drip through ; at this second place 
a stalagmite may then grow, w^hile at the first place the 
stalagmite may stop growing and even begin to diminish 
from evaporation. 

Ice begins to form, whenever water gets into a cave, 
if the cave temperature is below o° ; ice begins to melt 
as soon as the temperature is over o°. 

Professor Cranmer found that occasionally small quan- 
tities of ice form in caves in the summer months : this 
was in mountain caves, where there was snow on the 
mountains and the temperature of the nights at least, 
had sunk below freezing point: in fact when the condi- 
tions were those of the winter months. 



PART V. 



LIST OF AUTHORS. 



LIST OF AUTHORS. 



75 



Allen, Levi. Scientific AmericaUy New Series^ October 
27th, 1883, page 259. 

American Journal of Science and Arts ^ iS39> vol. XXXVI., 
page 184. 

AucHiNCLOSS, W. S., C. E. Waters within the Earth and 
the Laws of Rainflow, Philadelphia, 1897. 

DiADiN, Adolphe. Grottes et Cavernes, Paris, Hachette, 1867. 

Baedeker, Karl. Handbook of Austria, Handbook of the 
Eastern Alps. Handbook of South Eastern France, 
Handbook of Switzerland, Handbook of the United 
States. 

Baker, M. S. The Lava Region of Northern California: 
Sierra Club Bulletin, San Francisco, Cal., 1899, 
vol. II., page 318. 

Balch, Edwin Swift. Ice Caves and the Causes of Sub- 
terranean Ice: Allen, Lane & Scott, Philadelphia, 
November, 1896, and The Journal of the Franklin 
Institute, Philadelphia, March, 1897, vol. CXLIIL, 
pages 1 61-178. Ice Cave Hunting in Central Europe : 
Appalachia, Boston, 1897, vol. VIII., pages 203-209. 

'^ This list of authors includes all the authorities which I have per- 
sonally consulted. Several papers, such as Dr. Schwalbe's '•^Ueber- 
sichtliche Zusammenstellung Literarischer Notizen ueber Eiskbhlen'* 
and the works of Dr. Listoff, I have been unable to find in any library. 

C313) 



314 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

Siibte7'7'a7tea7i Ice Deposits iji America : yourjial of 

the Frajiklin histitute, Philadelphia, April, 1899, vol. 

CXLVIL, pages 286-297. 
Baltzer, Dr. A. Eine Neue Eishohle im Berner Oberland : 

yahrbuch des Schweizer Alpen Club, Bern, 1 892-1 893, 

pages 358-362. 
Behrens, Dr. Georg Henning. Hercynia Curiosa, 

Nordhausen, 1703. 
Bel, Matthias. Philosophical Transactions, London, 

1739, vol. XLI., page a^\ et seq. 
Benedict, Aiden S. Decor ah Republican, June 19th, 1881. 
Berthoud, Edward L. American y our nal of Science and 

Arts, Third Series, 1876, vol. XL, page 108. 
BiELZ, E. Albert. Siebenbilrgen, Handbuch, Carl Graeser, 

Wien, 1885. 
BiLLEREz, Mons. de. Histoire de V Academic Royale des 

Scieiices, 171 2, page 22 et seq. 
Bonne Y, T. G. The Alpine Regions, 1868. Nature, vol. 

XL, pages 310, 327, 328. 
BouE, Dr. Ami. La Turquie d' Europe, Paris, 1840, vol. 

L, page 132. Sitzungsbericht der K, K. Akademie 

der Wis sense ha f ten in Wien, 1864, L Theil, page 

'^21 et seq, 
Boz, Mons. de, Ingenieur du Roy. Histoire de V Acade- 

mie Royale des Sciences, 1726, pages 16, 17. 
Browne, The Reverend G. F. Ice Caves in France and 

Switzerla7id, London, Longmans, 1865. Ice Caves of 

Annecy : Good Words, Edinburgh, November, 1866. 
Bulletin, The Evening, Philadelphia, March ist, 1899. 



LIST OF AUTHORS. 315 

BuRSLEM, Captain Rollo. A Peep into Toorktstkan, 1 846. 

C. B. A. Scientific American, May 3d, 1879. 

Cantwell, Lieutenant J. C. Ice Cliffs on the Kowak 

River : National Geographic Magazine, October, 1896. 
Carrel, Chanoine G. Bibliotheque Universelle de Geneve, 

1841, vol. XXXIV., page 196. 
Christian Herald, March 24th, 1897. 
CoLLADON. His manuscript notes were used by J. A. 

Deluc in Annales de Chimie et de Physique, Paris, 

1822, vol. XXL, page 113 ^^^ seq. 

COSSIGNY, MONS. DE, InGENIEUR EN CHEF DE BeSAN^ON. 

Memoires de Mathematique et de physique presentes a 
r Academie Roy ale des Sciences, 1750, vol. I., page 
195 etseq. 

Cranmer, Professor Hans. Eishohlen und Windrohren 
Studien : Abhandlungen der K, K. Geographischen 
Gesellschaft in Wien, vol. I., 1899. 

Cranmer, Professor Hans, and Sieger, Professor Dr. 
Rob. Untersuchungen in den Oetscherhohlen : Glo- 
bus, 1899, vol. LXXV., pages 2>^Z-2>^^^ and ZZZ-ZZ^- 

Cvijic, Dr. a. Les Glacieres Naturelles de Serbie : 
Spelunca, Bulletin de la Societe de Speleologie, 2™^ 
Annee, Paris, 1896, pages 64-77. 

Dawkins, Professor W. Boyd. Cave Hunting, London, 
Macmillan, 1874. 

DeLuc, Jean Andre, Neveu. Des Glacieres Naturelles 
et de la cause qui forme la glace dans ces cavites, 
Geneve 12 October, 1822 : Annales de Chimie et de 
Physique, Paris, 1822, vol. XXL, page 113 ^^ seq. 



3l6 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

Dent, R. K., and Hill, Joseph. Historic Staffordshire, 

Birmingham, 1896. 
Dewey. American Journal of Science and Arts, 1819, 

vol. I., page 340, and 1822, vol. V., page 398. 
Dispatch: Frankford, Pennsylvania, 2 2d January, 1897. 
DiTTMAR, C. V. Ueber die Eismiilden im Ostlichen Sibi- 

rien: Bulletin de la classe Physico-mathematique de 

r Academie Imperiale des Sciences de St. Petersbourg, 

1853, Tome XL, pages 305-312. 
Drioton, Clement. Les Cavernes de la Cote d^ Or : 

Memoir es de la Societe de Speleologie, Paris, 1897, 

vol. I., page 209. 
Dufour, Lieutenant-Colonel. Notice sur la caverne 

et glacier e naturelle du Rothhorn : Bibliotheque Uni- 

verselle de Geneve, 1822, vol. XXL, page 113 ^/ seq. 
Dufour, L. Ueber das Gefrieren des Wassers und ilber 

die Bildung des Hagels : Pogge7idorff's Annalen der 

Physik und Chemie, 1861, vol. CXIV., pages 530-554. 
Dun ANT, C. Le Parmelan et ses Lapiaz : Annuaire du 

Club Alpin Frangais, 2^^ vol., Paris, 1875. 
FuGGER, Professor Eberhard. Uber Eishohlen : Peter- 

manns Mittheilungen, vol. XXIX., 1883, pages 12-19. 

Beobachtungen in den Eishohlen des Untersberges, 

Salzburg, 1888. Eishohlen und Windrohen, Salzburg, 

1 89 1, 1892, 1893. Eishohlen und Windrohren : Mit- 

theilungen der K. K. Geographischen Gesellschaft^ 

Vienna, 1894, pages 97-134. 
Geographic, La : Bulletin de la Societe de Geographie, 

Paris, 1900, vol. L, pages 52-54. 



LIST OF AUTHORS. 317 

Georgi, John Gottl. B enter kungen einer Reise Itu Rus- 

sischen Reich, Saint Petersburg, 1775, vol. I., page 369. 
GiBBS, G. American yournal of Science and Arts, 1853, 

Second Series, vol. XV., page 146. 
Girardot, Albert. Les dernieres observations du Cap- 

itaine L. Trouillet a la glacier e de Chaux-les-Passavant : 

Memoir es de la Societe d' Emulation du Doubs, 1886. 
Girod-Chantrans, Le Citoyen. Journal des Mines, 

Prairial, An. IV., pages 65-72. 
GoLLUT, Lois. Les Memoires Historiques de la Repub. 

Sequanoise, Dole, 1592. 
GuiMARD, Paul. Voyage en Islande et au Groenland 

execute pendant les annees 18 j^ et 18 j6, Paris, 1838. 
GuYOT, Professor Arnold. Well's Annual of Scientific 

Discovery, 1856, page 190. 
Hablizl. Description physiqtie de la contree de la 

Tauride, La Haye, 1788, pages 35-43. 
Hacquet. Oryctographia Carniolica, Leipzig, 1778. 
Hager, Albert D. Hitchcock' s Geology of Vermont, 1861, 

vol. I., page 198 et seq. 
Hann, Hochstetter and Pokony. Allgemeine Erd- 

kunde, 1887, pages 435, 436. 
Hayden, C. B. American Journal of Science and Arts, 

1843, vol. XLV., page ^Z. 
Heilprin, Professor Angelo. Ice Caves and Ice Gorges : 

Around the World, Philadelphia, 1894, pages 194, 195. 
Henderson, Ebenezer. Iceland, or a Journal of a Resi- 
dence in that Island, Edinburgh, 18 19, 2d Edition, 

page 420. 



3l8 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

Hitchcock, Professor Edward. Geology of Vermonty 

1 86 1, vol. I. 
Histoire de V Acade77iie Royale des ScienceSy 1686, Tome II., 

pages 2, 3, 22 : published in Paris in 1733. 
HovEY, The Reverend Horace Carter. Celebrated 

American Caverns, Cincinnati, Robert Clarke, 

1882. 
Humboldt, Alexander von. Personal Narrative of 

Travels to the Equinoctial Regions , London, 18 14, 

vol. I., pages 154-156. 
Ice Trade Jou^^nal, Philadelphia, July, 1897. 
Into the Schafioch : Temple Bar, London, November, 

1 86 1, vol. III., pages 393-401. 
Jackson. Report of the Geology of Maine, 1839, vol. III. 
Jars. Voyages Metallurgiques, 1774, vol. I., page 108. 
Jarz, Konrad. Die Eishbhlen bei Train in Mdhren : 

Petermann s Mittheilungen, 1882, pages 170-176. 
Jungk, C. G. Ueber Temperaturerniedrigung bei der 

Absorption des Wassers durch feste Korper : Poggen- 

dorff^s Annale7i der Physik und Chemie, 1865, vol. 

CXXIV., pages 292-308. 
Kircher, Athanasius. Mundus Subterraneus, 1664. 
KiRCHHOFF, Theodore. Reisebilder und Skizzen aus 

America, 1876, vol. II., page 211. 
KoRBER, H. Das Schafioch : yahrbuch des Schweizer 

Alpen Club, Bern, 1885, vol. XX., pages 316-343. 
Kotzebue, Otto von. A Voyage of Discovery into the 

South Sea and Bering' s Strait in the years 181^-1818, 

London, 1821, vol. I., page 220. 



LIST OF AUTHORS. 319 

KovARiK, Alois F. The Decorah Ice Cave and its Ex- 
planation : Scientific American Supplement ^ No. 1195, 
November 26, 1898, pages 191 58, 191 59. Ice Cave 
Observations: Decorah Public Opinion, September 
20th, 1899. 

Kraus, Franz. Hbhlenkunde, Wien, 1894. 

Krenner, Dr. Jos. Alex. Die Eishohle von Dobschau, 
Budapest, 1874. 

Lathrop, Dr. S. Pearl. American Journal of Science and 
Arts, 1844, vol. XLVL, page 331. 

Lee, C. a. American Journal of Science and Arts, 1824, 
vol. VIII., page 254. 

Lepechin, Dr. Iwan. Tagebuch der Reise durch verschie- 
denen Provinzen des Russischen Reiches in den Jahren 
lydS, lySg, Altenburg, 1774. 

LoHMANN, Hans. Das Hohleneis unter besonderer Berilck- 
sichtigung einiger Eishohlen des Erzgebirges, Jena, 

1895- 

LooMis, Professor Elias. Edinburgh Philosophical Jour- 
nal, New Series, i860, vol. XII., page 283. 

Lowe, N. M. Paradoxical Phenomena in Ice Caves : 
Science Observer, vol. II., pages 57, 58, Boston, 1879. 

Lowe, W. Besant. La Glaciere Naturelle de Dobschau: 
La Nature, 2d August, 1879. 

Lyell, Sir Charles. Principles of Geology, nth Edition, 
New York, Appleton & Co., 1877. 

M. L. E. Decorah Republican, June loth, 1879. 

Macomber, D. O. American Journal of Science and Arts, 
1839, vol. XXXVI., page 184. 



320 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

Marbach, Dr. Oswald. H'ohlen : Physikalisches Lexicon, 
vol. III., pages 836-842. 

Marinitsch, J. La Kacna Jama : Memoir es de la So- 
ciete de Speleologie, April, 1896, vol. I., page 83 ^^ seq. 

Martel, Edouard Alfred. Les Abimes, Paris, Charles 
Delagrave, 1894. Sous Terre : Annuaire du Club 
Alpin Frangais, vol. XXIII., 1896, pages 42, 43. 
Reviews in French of Ice Caves and the Causes, etc, 
and Ice Cave Hunting, etc., by E. S. Balch : Memoir es 
de la Societe de Speleologie, Paris, vol. I., December, 
1897, pa-ges 349-352. iom.e Campagne Souterraine : 
Memoir es de la Societe de Speleologie, vol. III., 1899, 
pages 246-254. 

Meehan, W. E. Philadelphia Ledger, 1896. 

Meissner, Franz. Ueber die beim, Benetzen pulverformiger 
Korper auftretende Wdrmetonung : Wiedemann! s An- 
nalen der Physik und Chemie, 1886, vol. XXIX., 
pages 1 14-13 1. 

Menegaux. La Glacier e Nature lie de la Grdce-Dieu ou 
de Chaux-les-Passavant : Illustration, Paris, 30th Jan- 
uary, 1897. 

Mercer, Henry Chapman. The Hill Caves of Yucatan^ 
Philadelphia, J. B. Lippincott, 1896. 

Middendorff, Dr. A. Th. von. Zusatz : Bulletin de la 
class e physico-mathematique de V Academie Impericde 
des Sciences de St. Peter sbourg, 1853, Tome XI., 
pages 312-316. 

Montpeyreux, Dubois de. Voyage autour du Caucase, 

1843. 



LIST OF AUTHORS. 321 

MoRiN, AuGUSTE. Quoted by Thury in Bibliotheque 

Universelle de Geneve, 1861, vol. X., page 150. 
MoussoN, A. Einige Thatsachen betreffend das Schmelzen 

und Gefrieren des Wassers : Poggendorff' s Annalen 

der Physik und Chemie, 1858, vol. CV., pages 161-174. 
MuNRO, J., C. E. yack Frost as an Artist : CasseWs 

Family Magazine, February, 1895, pages 228-231. 
MuRCHisoN, Vernieul AND Keyserling. The Geology of 

Russia and the Ural Mountains, 1845, ^^1. I., pages 

186-198. 
Nagel, J. N. His manuscript was published in 1857 by 

Schmidl in Die Hohlen des Otscker, pages 36-39. 

Nature's Ice Caves : Chambers Edinburgh journal, New 

Series, 1850, vol. XII., page 169. 
Nicholson, journal of Natter al Philosophy, 1797, vol. L, 

page 2 2() et seq. 
NiESSL, G. Verhandlungen des Naturforschenden Verein 

in Briinn, 1867, ^^' ^^-^ P^g"^ ^2. 
Olafsen, Eggert and Povelsen, Biarne. Voyage en 

Islande ; traduit du Danois par Gautier de Lapeyronie, 

Paris, 1802. 
Olmstaed, Professor D. Well's Annual of Scientific 

Discovery, 1856, page 190. 
Owen, Luella Agnes. Cave Regions of the Ozarks and 

Black Hills, Cincinnati, The Editor Publishing Com- 
pany, 1898. 
Parrot, Georg Friederich. Grundriss der Physik der 

Erde und Geologic, Riga and Leipzig, 181 5, pages 

92-99. 



32 2 GLACIl^RES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

Pelech, Dr. Johann E. The Valley of Stracena and the 
Dobschau Ice Cavern ; translated by W. Bezant Lowe ; 
London, Triibner & Co., 1879. 

Peters, Karl F. Geologische und Miner alogisc he Studien 
aus dent Silddstlichen Ungarn : Sitzungsbericht der 
K. K. Akademie der Wissenchaften, Vienna, vol. 
XLIIL, 1861, pages 435-437. 

Petruzzi, Professor. In Berichte Uber die Mittheilungen 
von Freunden der Naturwissenschaften in Wien ; col- 
lected and published by Wilhelm Haidinger, vol. 
VIL, Vienna, December, 1857. 

PiCTET, Professor M. A. Memoires de la Societe d'His- 
toire Naturelle de Geneve y 1821, vol. I., page 151. 
Memoir e sur les glacieres naturelles du fura et des 
Alpes : Bibliotheque Universelle de Geneve y 1822, vol. 
XX., page 261 et seq. 

Pleischl, Professor A. Uber das Eis im Sommer Zwischen 
den Basalttrilmmern bei Kameik in Bohmen : Poggen- 
dorff's Annalen der Physik und Chemiey 1841, vol. 
LIV., pages 292-299. 

Poggendorff, J. C. Annalen der Physik und Chemiey 
Ergdnzungsbandy 1842, pages 517-519; and 1850, 
vol. LXXXL, page 579 et seq. 

PoissENOT, Benigne. Nouvelles Histoires TragiqueSy 
Paris, 1586. 

Posse LT-CsoRiCH, A. Zeitschrift des Deutschen und Oes- 
terreichischen Alpen Vereiny 1880. 

Post-Dispatchy St. Louis, July 13th and September 5th, 

1897. 



LIST OF AUTHORS. 323 

PresSy The, Philadelphia, August ist, 1897. 

Prestwich, Joseph. On Underground Temperatures : 
Proceedings Royal Society, 1885. Reprinted in Col- 
lected papers on some controverted questions of Geology, 
London, Macmillan, 1885. 

Prevost, Professor Pierre. Journal de Geneve, No. 11, 
2 1 St March, 1789. Recherches physico-mecaniques sur 
la chdleur Solaire, Geneve, 1792, page 206. 

Public Ledger, The, Philadelphia, July 6th, 1896; and Sep- 
tember 25 th, 1899. 

Raymond, R. W. The Ice Caves of Washington Terri- 
tory : Overland Monthly, 1869, vol. III., page 421. 

Reich, F. Beobachtungen ilber die Temper atur des Ges- 
teines, Freiberg, 1834, pages 175-205. 

Ritchie, John, Jr. Editorial : Science Observer, Boston, 
1879, vol. II., pages 60-64. Ice Caves : Boston Tran- 
script, January 2d, 1897. Talks in Science Fields: 
The Happy Thought, Boston, January 23d, 1897, 
page 10. 

Rogers, Professor W. B. WeW s Annual of Scientific 
Discovery, 1856, page 190. 

RoMAiN-JoLY, Fr. Joseph, Capucin. La Franc he- Comte, 
Lettres a Mile, d' Udressier, Paris, 1779, pages 32, 2)o* 

RosENMULLER, Dr., and TiLEsius, Dr. Beschreibung 
Merkwiirdiger Hohlen, Leipzig, 1 799. 

RozET. Encyclopedic Moderne, Didot freres, Paris, 1858, 
Tome XVI., page 502. 

Russell, Professor Israel Cook. A Journey up the 
Yukon River: Bulletin American Geographical Society, 



324 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

vol. XXVII. , No. 2, page 149. Seco?id expedition 
to Mount Sai7it Elias : Thirtee7ith A^umal Report 
U^iited States Geological Su7'vey, 1891—92, page 19. 
Glaciers of North A^iierica, Boston, Ginn & Co., 

1897. 

Sartori, Dr. Franz. Natiirwtmder des O ester reichiscJien 
Kaiserthums, Vienna, 1809. Neiieste Reise durch 
Oesterreich, Leipzig, 181 2. 

Saussure, Horace Benedict de. Voyages daiis les Alpes, 
1796, Tome III., sections 1404-1416. 

ScHMiDL, Professor Dr. Adolf. Die Grotten ^ und 
Hohlen von Adelsberg, Liieg, Planifia tmd Laas, 
Vienna, 1854. Die Hohlen des Otscher, Vienna, 1857. 
Die Oesterreichische?i Hohlen, Pest, 1858. 

Schwalbe, Professor Dr. B. Uber Eishbhleyi U7id 
abnor7ne Eisbildiaigoi : VerJia7idhc7ige7i der Gesell- 
sc haft fur Erdku7ide zti Berli7i, 1881, pages 146-163. 
Uber Eishdhle7i 7C7id Eislocher, Berlin, Gaertner's 
Buchhandlung, 1886. 

Scie7itific A77ierican, New Series, vol. III., July, i860, page 
51 ; vol. XVIII., Januai*}-, 1868, page 3; vol. XXVII., 
October, 1872, page 248. 

Scott, Robert H., ]\I. A., F. R. S. Ele7ne7itary Meteor- 
ology, Third Edition, London, Kegan Paul, French 
& Co., 1885. 

ScROPE, G. PouLETT. Edi7iburgh Jotiriial of Scie7ice, 
1826, vol. v., page 154. Me77ioir of the Geology of 
Ce7itral Era7ice, London, 1827. The Geology and 
Exti7ict Volca7ioes of Ce7itral France, London, 1858. 



LIST OF AUTHORS. 325 

Sieger, Professor Dr. Rob. See Cranmer. 

SiLLiMAN, Benjamin. American yotirnal of Science and 
Arts, 1822, vol. IV., pages 174 and 177; and 1839, 
vol. XXXVL, page 185. 

Smyth, C. Piazzi. Teneriffe, An Astronomer s Experi- 
m^ent, 1858. 

Speleologie, Memoir es de la Societe de, Paris, vols. I., II., 
III. Beginning in 1897. 

Spelunca, Bulletin de la Societe de Speleologie, Paris. Be- 
ginning with January, 1895. 

Strachey, General Sir Richard. Narrative of a Jour- 
ney to the Lakes Rakas-tal and Manasorowar, in 
Western Tibet, undertaken in September, 184.8 : Geo- 
graphical Journal, London, 1900, vol. XV., page 168. 

Telegraph, The Evening, Philadelphia, January 2d, 1896, 
and Januar^^ 20th, 1897. 

Terlanday, Professor Emil. Meine Erfahrungen in 
der Eishohle von Szilize : Petermann s Mittheilungen. 
1893, P^g"^ '^'^Z' Sommereisbildung in der Eishohle 
von Szilize : Petermann s Mittheilungen, 1 896, page 
217. 

Thoma, Dr. C. Das Unterirdische Eisfeld bet der Dorn- 
burg, Wiesbaden, 1841. 

Thury, Hericart de. Journal des Mines, vol. XXXIII., 
page 157. The Edinburgh Philosophical Journal^ 
vol. II., page Zo. 

Thury, Professor. Etudes sur les Glacier es Natter elles : 
Bibliotheque Universelle, Archives des Sciences phys- 
iques de Geneve, 1861, vol. X., pages 97-153. 



326 GLACIERES OR FREEZING CAVERNS. 

Times, The, Philadelphia, November i8th, 1896. 
TowNSON, Robert, LL. D. Travels in Hungary , 1797, 

pages 317-321. 
Trouillet, Capitaine. La Glaciere de Chaux-les- Pas sa- 
vant : Memoir es de la Societe d' Emulation du Doubsy 

Besangon, 1885. 
Umlauft, Professor Dr. Friedrich. Die Oesterreichisch- 

Ungarische Monarchie, Wien, Pest, Leipzig, 1883. 
Valvasor, Johann Weichard, Freiherrn. Die Ehre 

des Herzogthumes Crai7z, Lay bach, 1689. 
Villard, L. Grottes du Vercors : Spelunca, 1896, vol. 

II., page 39. 
VoiGT, JoH. Carl Wilhelm. Miner alogische Reisen durch 

das Herzogthum. Weimar, Weimar, 1785, vol. II., page 

123- 
Ward, J. Clifford. Nature, vol. XL, page 310. 

White, Dr. C. A. Geological Reports of the State of 
Iowa, Des Moines, 1870, vol. I., page 80. 

Whvmper, Edward. Scrambles Amongst the Alps, Lon- 
don, John Murray, 1871. 

WiNCHEL, Alexander. Walks and Talks in the Geologi- 
cal Field, The Chautauqua Century Press, 1898. 

Wise, T. A. Ice Makiiig in the Tropics : Nature, Mac- 
millan, London and New York, 1872, vol. V., pages 
189-190. 



INDEX. 



INDEX. 



PAGE 



Adirondack guides, Opinions of 8i 

Alaska, Subsoil ice in i66, 167 

Allmen, Emil von, guide 21 

Altitude of glaci^res 150 

Amarnath, Cave of 262 

Apparently static caves 122 

Arizona, Glacieres in 175, 176 

Auchincloss, Mr. W. S 307 

Auersperg, Prince . 52 

Ausable Pond, Freezing talus at 79 

Balch, Mrs. Geo. B 189 

Balch Pass, The 263 

Bargy, Mont 71 

Basins, Ice 20, 130 

Behrens 270 

Beilstein, Caves on the 234 

Bel, Matthias 254, 271 

Benedict, Mr. A. S 293 

Benner, Mr 90 

Berthoule, Mons 206 

Besanfon , 8 

Billerez, Mons. de 270 

Bonney, Professor T. G 216, 222, 291 

Boston Natural History Society 138, 182 

Bou6, Dr. A 242 

Boulder heaps 116 

Boz, Mons. de 270 

Brandon, Freezing well of 77, 182, 283, 284 

Brinckerhoff, Mr. F. H 177 

Briot, Mons 204 

Brisons, Glaciere de 2 

(329) 



330 INDEX. 



PAGE 



Browne, The Rev. G. F. . 133, 213, 215, 216, 219, 220, 221, 222, 288 

Biillctin, The Evening 253 

Buried glaciers 165 

Burslem, Captain 261 

Butler, Mr. R 171, 172, 308 

California, Glacieres in 170, 171 

Canfield, Mr. N. M 76 

Capillary or Compressed Air Theory 142 

Carbonic acid gas 133 

Carrel, Chanoine 212 

Caucasus, Glacieres in the 257 

Cesi, Don Giuseppe 209 

Chapuis, Glaciere de 5, 216 

Chatham, Mr. I. C 94 

Chaux-les-Passavant, Glaciere de 8, 193 

Chemical causes theory 140 

Cliff caves 6, 18, 22, 27, 40, 70, 76, 120 

Clothes for glaciere exploration 53 

Cold caves 117 

Colladon, Mons 278 

Color effects 131 

Colorado, Glacieres in 174, 175 

Cossigny, Mons. de 202, 271 

Cotterlaz, S. J., guide 71 

Coxe, Miss Mary 262 

Cranmer, Professor H 232, 234, 235, 309 

Creux-de-Souci, Le 206 

Crevasses 4 

Crimea, Glacieres in the 256 

Gushing, Mr. F. H 176 

Cvijic, Dr. A 243, 305 

Dante 135 

Daubuisson 248 

Dawkins, Professor W. Boyd 292 

Decorah, Freezing cave of 88, 177 

Decorah, Freezing well of 89 



INDEX. 331 



PAGE 



Deluc, Mons. J. A 277 

Demenyfalva Jegbarlang 24 

Dewey, Mr 183, 277 

Dimensions of glacieres 120 

Dittmar, Mons. de 260 

Dobsina Jegbarlang 13, 252 

Dobsina, Village of 13 

Dornburg, Freezing talus at the 59, 247 

Dornburg, Freezing cellar at the 60 

Draughts 8, 45, 47, 58, 80 

Dripstone formations in glacieres 24, 30, 57, 63, 67, 304 

Due de L6vy 202 

Dunant, Mons. C 215, 216 

Dutoit, Professor 221 

Eastern Alps, Glacieres in the • 224-236 

Eastern United States, Glacieres in the 180-189 

Eger, Dr. W 262 

Ehrlicher, Mr 86 

Eisenerz 37 

Elkinsville, Glaciere at 180, 305 

EUenville, Freezing gorge at gi, 185 

Emery, Aymon, guide 62, 65 

Enfer, Glaciere de T 215 

England, Glacieres in 192, 193 

Entrances of glacieres 121 

Eschholz, Dr 167 

Evaporation 156, 275, 287, 296, 298, 300, 302, 304 

Farrandsville, Cave at 93 

Farnum, Mr. G. L 266 

Farnum, Mr. J. E 266 

Fauna of glacieres 133, 207, 214, 216, 219, 246 

Fee Glacier, Ice Cave in 68 

Flora of glacieres 80, 83, 85, 91, 134, 188, 222, 237, 240 

Fondurle, Glaciere de 213 

Forms of Ice 126 

Frainer Eisleithen, The 33, 251 



332 INDEX. 



PAGE 



France, Glacieres in 193-208, 213-218 

Frauenmauerhohle, The 37 

Freezing mines and tunnels 117 

Freezing wells 74, 77, 89, 117, 206 

Friedrichsteinerhohle 51 

Fugger, Professor E. . . . 224, 226, 227, 228, 237, 249, 251, 294 

Genolliere, Glaciere de la 48, 219 

Geographical distribution of glacieres 149 

Germany, Glacieres in 246-250 

Giant of the Valley, Talus of the 81 

Girardot, Mons. A 204 

Girod-Chantrans, Le citoyen 272 

Glacial period theory. The 136 

Glaciere, Advantage of term no 

Glaciere caves 118 

Glaciers 145 

Gollut, Lois 202, 269 

Gorges and troughs 146, 260 

Great Harrington, Icy gulf near 99 

Gruber, J., guide 18 

GsoU-Alp 38 

Guyot, Professor A 281 

Hablizl 272 

Hacquet 271 

Hager, Mr. A. D 182, 282 

Hall, Mr. W. Coleman 187 

Hart, Mr. B 76 

Hartenstein, Professor 249 

Haut-d'Aviernoz, Glaciere de 1' 2, 215 

Hayden, Professor C. B 280 

Heilprin, Professor A 93, 185 

Herschel, Sir John 141 

Hitchcock, Professor E 284 

Hoar frost 16, 30, 129 

Holes in ice 4, 42, 64, 130 

Hollow ice stalagmites 23, 127, 287, 290 



INDEX. 2f33 

PAGE 

Holschuh, Mr. F i88 

Hovey, The Rev. H. C i86 

Howell, Mr. E. I. H 80, 83 

Humboldt, Alexander von 276 

Ice floors 4, 7, 11, 15, 19, 22, 30, 42, 54, 64, 72 

Ice formed by radiation 263-266 

Iceland, Glacieres in 190, 191 

Ice near entrance of caves 152 

Ice sheets,. Subterranean 115 

Ice slabs on floor 20 

Ice slopes 4. i7) ^9, 23, 52, 67 

Ice Spring, Oregon, The 169 

Ice stalactites and stalagmites . . . . 3, 7, 12, 23, 30, 42, 73, 127 
Italy, Glacieres in 208-213 

Japan, Glaciere in 266 

Jayne, Mrs. Horace 189 

Joly, Capucin Romain 272 

Karst, Glacieres in the 236-242 

King's Ravine, Subterranean ice in i 

Kirchhofl; Mr. T 292 

Klenka, S., guide 51 

Kolowratshohle, The 18, 226 

Korber, Herr B 222, 294 

Korea, Glaciere in 266 

Kovarik, Mr. A. F 89, 178, 180, 307 

Krain, Glacieres in the 236-242 

Krauss, Regierungsrath F 303 

Krenner, Dr 292 

Lakes, Subterranean 7» 43 

Lamb, Mr. C., guide 81 

Lathrop, Mr. S. P 280 

Lava caves, Washington 168 

Learned, Mr 86 



334 INDEX. 

PAGE 

Lee, Mr. C. A 278 

Legends about glacieres 135, 216 

Lepechin 258 

Lerchenfeld, Freiherr von 227 

Lewis, Miss J. F 93 

Lewis, Mr. J. F 129 

Lipt6s Szt Miklos 24 

Lohmann, Dr. H 302 

Lowe, Mr. C. E., Jr 83 

Lowe, Mr. C. E., Sr i, 85 

Lowe, Mr. N. M 142, 292 

Luce, Mr. C. 78 

Lyell, Sir Charles 116, 210 

Manchester, Marble freezing cave at 76 

Marinitsch, Herr J 236 

Martel, Mons. E.A 205, 207, 208, 214, 221, 300 

McCabe, Mr. E 94 

Meehan, Mr. W. E 165 

Mercer, Mr. H. C 143, 187 

Metric system 3 

Mist in caves 18, 55 

Misura, F., forester 27 

Montana, Glacieres in 1 71-173 

Montarquis, Grand Cave de 70, 217, 286 

Montarquis, Petite Cave de 71 

Moonlight effects 24, 33, 132 

Morin, Mons 218 

Motion in subterranean ice 131 

Movements of air 122, 156 

Murchison, Sir R. 1 141 

Nagel, J. N 271 

Naye, Glaciere de 221 

Nicholson, Mr. C. J 95 

Niles, Mr 81 

Nixloch, The 57, 226 



INDEX. 335 

PAGE 

Oetscher, The Seelucken on the 231 

Olmstaed, Professor D 282 

Otis, Mr 81 

Oudot, Dr. . 272 

Owego, Freezing well of 74, 186 

Paleontological remains 134 

Parmelan, Mont 3, 5 

Parrot, G. F 125 

Peasants, .Opinions of 33? 70* 1 39 

Pelech, Dr. J. E 252 

Periods in glacieres, Open and closed 297 

Peters, K. F 246 

Petruzzi, Professor 241, 282 

Phillips, Mr. G. B 185 

Pictet, Professor M. A . . . 277 

Pit caves 2, 3, 10, 48, 52, 63, 66, 119 

Pleischl, Professor A 250, 279 

Poissenot, Benigne 193, 269 

Poprad 13 

Pralong du Reposoir 70 

Press, The Philadelphia 306 

Preston, Mr 74 

Prestwich, Mr 248 

Prevost, Professor P 273 

Prismatic ice 64, 67, 129, 287, 289, 303 

Public Ledger, The 169 

Randolph, The Ice Gulch, 83 

Raymond, Mr. W. R 291 

Reich, F 279 

Religious feeling about ice 135, 176, 262 

Ritchie, Mr. John, Jr 76, 83, 85, 143, 181, 292 

Rogers, Professor W. B 281 

Roth, Eishohle bei 35 

Rudolf IL, Kaiser 232 

Ruffiny, Herr E 252 

Rumney, Freezing talus at 85 

Russell, Professor I. C 166, 299 



33^ INDEX. 

PAGE 

Saint-Georges, Glaci^re de 62, 219, 285 

Saint- Georges, Village of 62 

Saint- Livres, Glaciere de 65 

Saint-Livres, Pr^ de 66 

Sakharov, Dr. A 257 

Samuel, Mr. B 192, 209, 264 

Sartori, Dr. F 276 

Satter, Professor H 241 

Saussure, H. B. de 209, 274 

Scandinavia, Glacieres in 191 

Schafloch, The 21, 222 

Schallenberger, C 232, 269 

Schellenberger Eisgrotte, The 227 

Schwalbe, Dr. B 241, 253, 298 

Scott, Professor W. B 176 

Scrope, Mr. G. P 278 

Seelisberg, The Milchhaiiser of 45 

Selby-Hill, Mr. W. D 88 

Servia, Glacieres in 242-245 

Skerizora, Cave of 245 

Skinner's Cave 76 

Siberia, Glacieres in 259-261 

Sieger, Professor 232 

Silliman, Professor 279 

Sirar, J., guide 56 

Snow, Subterranean 16, 129, 206, 247 

South America, Subsoil ice in 189, 190 

Spruce Creek, Freezing talus at 90, 188 

Stockbridge, Icy glen near 75 

Strachey, Gen. Sir R 263 

Strein, R 232, 269 

Suchenreuther Eisloch, The 55 

Summer's heat theory, The 138 

Summit, Glacieres near 95 

Switzerland, Glacieres in 219-223 

Szilize, Cave of 253 

Tablerloch, The 233 

Taluses 79, 81, 85, 90, 100, 116 

Temperatures, Subterranean 112 



INDEX. 2)?>7 



PAGE 



Teneriffe, Glaciere on the Peak of 190 

Terlanday, Dr 301 

Terminology 109 

Thermometric observations . . . 151, 178, 219, 227, 228, 233, 237 

252, 253 

Thury, Professor 122, 139, 213, 217, 219, 220, 285 

Time of formation of ice 159 

Townson, R 275 

Trouillet, Captain 202, 297 

Turrian, A. A., gendarme 48 

Umlauft, Professor F 293 

Ural, Glacieres in the 257-259 

Valvasor, Freiherr 238, 240, 270 

Villard, Mons. L 133, 214 

Vire, Mons. A 134 

Wachtl, Forester 252 

Wagner, Mr. W. W 173 

Wallingford, The ice beds of 99 

Watertown, Cave at 87 

Watertown, Windholes at 86 

Waves of heat and cold, Theory of 141 

White, Dr. C. A . 291 

Williams, Mr. W. F loi 

Williamstown, Caves near loi 

Williamstown, The snow hole near 98, 183 

Winter's cold theory, The 147 

Windholes 61,111,117 

Windholes, The theory of 124 

Wordsworth, Verses by . 192 

Yeermallik, Cave of 261 

Ziegler, Herr J. M 45 



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